This week on Facing the Future, we focused on tax policy with Howard Gleckman, non-resident fellow at the Urban Institute and the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. He explained his recent column, "What The Ugly History of Tax Policy Over The Past Four Decades Means For The Future."

This week on Facing the Future we talked with Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) and Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) about two bills they have co-sponsored. One would create a bipartisan fiscal commission and the other would dock the pay of members of Congress for not doing their budget and appropriations bills on time.

This week on Facing the Future, former CBO director Doug Elmendorf of Harvard's Kennedy School discussed the state of the economy, the government shutdown and why policymakers should not rely on economic growth alone to rein in the unsustainable growth of debt.

This week on Facing the Future we looked at the federal government shutdown from political and economic perspectives. Our guests were David Lerman, Editor of CQ Budget, who covers Capitol Hill, and Gordon Gray, Vice President for Budget Analysis at the Peter G Peterson Foundation, who tracks the economy.  

This week on Facing the Future, we discussed expiring premium subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans with Matt McGough of KFF and a new fee proposed by President Trump for high-skilled worker visas (H-1B) with Theresa Cardinal Brown of the Bipartisan Policy Center.

This week on Facing the Future, former U. S. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) discussed why the nation's debt is on an unsustainable path and what needs to be done about it. 

This week on Facing the Future, Dr. Kent Smetters, Faculty Director of the Penn-Wharton Budget Model discussed a new report on the potential economic and budgetary impact of generative AI. He also described an illustrative package of tax and spending reforms to reduce future budget deficits and grow the economy.

This week on Facing the Future, Rachel Snyderman and Caleb Quakenbush of the Bipartisan Policy Center discuss the prospect of a government shutdown, the growth in tariff revenue and the president's "pocket rescission."

This week on Facing the Future, Kurt Couchman, senior fellow in fiscal policy at Americans for Prosperity, explained why he thinks a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution is needed, why past efforts failed and how a new effort could succeed.  

This week on Facing the Future, tax expert Bill Gale of the Brookings Institution discussed the effects of higher tariffs and a new commentary he co-authored on the idea of using earmarked revenues as a deficit reduction strategy. Concord Coalition Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux joined the conversation.

This week on Facing the Future we talked with Dennis Lockhart, former President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He gave us his take on the state of the economy and what might happen in a debt-induced fiscal crisis. Concord Coalition Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux joined the conversation.

This week on Facing the Future, former Social Security Public Trustee Charles Blahous discussed the program's deepening financing challenges on its 90th anniversary and explained why postponing action just makes things worse.

This week on Facing the Future, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, explained why he believes the U. S. economy is edging closer to a recession, led by the negative impacts of higher tariffs and restrictive immigration policies. He also weighed-in on the dangers of runaway debt.

This week on Facing the Future, we looked at the financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare with Jessica Riedl of the Manhattan Institute. She explained why these programs add to budget deficits despite the misperception that they are self-financing.  

This week on Facing the Future, Molly Reynolds of the Brookings Institution talks about the possibility of a government shutdown in the fall and whether the spending power is shifting away from Congress toward the executive branch.

This week on Facing the Future, former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels joined us to discuss the need to develop contingency plans for a fiscal crisis in the U.S. that he sees as increasingly probable.

This week on Facing the Future, Jim Capretta of the American Enterprise Institute digs into the 2025 Medicare Trustees Report. Then he explains why the federal budget rules are deepening societal differences.

This week on Facing the Future, we heard from two tax experts with different ideological perspectives who have been following the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). David S. Mitchell is a senior fellow for tax and regulatory policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and Kyle Pomerleau is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

This week on Facing the Future, tax expert Andrew Lautz, Associate Director for Economic Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, discusses tensions between House and Senate Republicans as they rush to pass a major deficit-financed tax cut bill before July 4th.

This week on Facing the Future, Prof. Philip Joyce of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, explains the high stakes in Washington's battle over the power of the purse and why protecting the Congressional Budget Office matters.