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Senate’s Balanced Budget Amendment Could Force Deep Cuts in Aid to States
December 14, 2011
The Republican-sponsored version of a constitutional balanced budget amendment, which the Senate voted on today, would require enormous federal budget cuts, very likely resulting in dramatic reductions in federal grants to states and localities for services ranging from education to highway maintenance to public safety. The attached … -
The Senate’s Balanced Budget Amendment Would Require Extreme Budget Cuts
December 5, 2011
The constitutional balanced budget amendment (BBA) that the Senate is expected to consider this month would, like any version of a BBA, risk serious harm to the economy by requiring that the budget be balanced even during an economic downturn. But this BBA, in particular, would do far more damage because it also would prevent the … -
Republican Proposal To Pay For Payroll Tax Extension Would Increase Already Severe Cuts In Discretionary Programs
December 2, 2011
The plan of Senate Republican leaders to extend and expand payroll tax relief includes a smaller payroll tax cut and would provide less than half of the economic boost of the Democratic alternative. The plan claims to offset the costs of its payroll tax cut by freezing federal employee pay and cutting federal employment, but that claim is … -
Testimony: Robert Greenstein, President, on “A Balanced Budget Amendment: The Perils of Constitutionalizing the Budget Debate”
November 30, 2011
Thank you for the invitation to testify today. I am Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a policy institute that focuses both on fiscal policy and on policies affecting low- and moderate-income Americans. We, like most others who analyze fiscal policy developments and trends, believe that the nation's … -
Amash Constitutional Spending Cap Would Radically Shrink Federal Budget
November 28, 2011
Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) has introduced an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would impose an extraordinarily severe cap on federal spending. The amendment would force radical shrinkage of the federal government, taking the nation down the road toward antigovernment activist Grover Norquist's vision of "starving the beast." If … -
How the Potential Across-the-Board Cuts in the Debt Limit Deal Would Occur
Updated November 22, 2011
The debt limit deal enacted on August 2 calls for about $900 billion in cuts in discretionary programs over the next decade and would impose further automatic, across-the-board spending cuts in many programs if Congress fails to enact an additional $1.2 trillion in deficit-reduction measures by January 15, 2012. Those across-the-board cuts … -
Latest Democratic Offer Includes Further Compromise,
Matches Overall Numbers of Toomey Proposal;
Republicans Reject It
November 18, 2011
Democratic members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (called by some the Supercommittee) submitted an offer last Friday in response to a plan put forward earlier in the week by Senator Pat Toomey and other Joint Committee Republicans. Various media institutions reported today that this latest Democratic … -
GOP Tax Proposal Risks a Substantial Tax Shift From High-Income Households to Low- and Middle-Income Households
November 18, 2011
The Toomey plan from Republican negotiators on the deficit-reduction "supercommittee" would produce only a modest increase in revenues — about $300 billion over ten years, relative to a baseline that assumes Congress extends all of the Bush tax cuts. But it would accomplish this through what appears to be … -
Testimony: Chad Stone, Chief Economist, at Hearing on “Could Tax Reform Boost Business Investment and Job Creation”
November 17, 2011
Chairman Casey, Vice Chairman Brady, and other members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before this committee, which has been special to me since I first worked on the JEC staff in 1989. In my testimony, I want to make one overarching point about the question raised by the title of this hearing, … -
Program Cuts Under a Balanced Budget Amendment: How Severe Might They Be?
November 15, 2011
The constitutional balanced budget amendment that the House is expected to consider this week could force Congress to cut all programs by an average of 17.3 percent by 2018. If revenues are not raised (the House-passed budget resolution assumes no increase above current-policy levels) and all programs are cut by the same percentage, … -
Balanced Budget Amendment Highly Ill-Advised for Addressing Long-Term Fiscal Problems
November 14, 2011
The balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution that the House will consider this week would be a highly ill-advised way to address the nation's long-term fiscal problems. It would threaten significant economic harm while raising a host of problems for the operation of Social Security and other vital federal functions. The … -
The Composition of Past Deficit-Reduction Packages – And Lessons for the Next One
November 14, 2011
Revenue increases were a part of every major deficit-reduction package in the 1980s and 1990s until the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. In several cases — notably in 1982 and 1984 (where they offset a portion of President Reagan's large tax cuts of 1981) — they dominated the package. In several other cases … -
Video: Jared Bernstein and James Horney Discuss the Perils of a Constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment
November 11, 2011
[A Constitutional balanced budget amendment] "is a really bad idea. First of all, we don’t really have to have a balanced budget. We certainly are running deficits right now, that are really large, now that’s largely because of the economic downturn and in fact it helps us to keep from going deeper into the economic hole, but in the long run, under current policies, we’re facing deficits that are way too large. We should get them down. We have to. But we don’t have to balance them."
"What we have to do is bring deficits down to a level, somewhere below 3% of GDP, that would keep our debt from rising constantly as a share of the economy. That’s the danger."
Duration: 6:12
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Plan From Toomey, Other Republicans Not a First Step Toward Balanced Deficit Reduction
November 10, 2011
Senator Pat Toomey and other Republicans on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (“Supercommittee”) portray their new offer to raise close to $300 billion in revenues (under a plan to reduce deficits by about $1.5 trillion over ten years) as a significant concession, and some observers have suggested it represents a … -
Economic Forecasting Firm Harshly Criticizes Proposed Constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment
November 8, 2011
If a constitutional balanced budget amendment (BBA) had already been ratified and were now being enforced for fiscal year 2012, “the effect on the economy would be catastrophic,” according to a scathing analysis of a BBA by Macroeconomic Advisers, one of the nation’s preeminent private economic forecasting firms. This … -
Democrats Offer Significant Concessions
Revised November 1, 2011
The new deficit-reduction plan from several Democrats on the congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the "supercommittee") marks a dramatic departure from traditional Democratic positions — and actually stands well to the right of plans by the co-chairs of the bipartisan Bowles-Simpson commission and the … -
Republican Plan Contains Minuscule Revenue Increase Alongside Deep Cuts in Medicare and Medicaid
October 31, 2011
The latest proposal by Republicans on the congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the "supercommittee") contains virtually no new revenue and deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. In those respects, it represents little change from earlier Republican budget proposals. It stands in contrast to last week's … -
Repeal of Contractor Withholding Provision Would Encourage
Tax Abuse
October 26, 2011
The House will vote tomorrow on whether to repeal a 2006 law designed to fight tax abuse by private contractors for federal, state, or local governments. Congress and President George W. Bush enacted the 2006 law after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) uncovered widespread tax abuse by government contractors. … -
Video: A Discussion with Jared Bernstein and Chuck Marr on Tax Repatriation
October 20, 2011
Congress is considering a temporary "repatriation tax holiday" that would allow corporations to bring their overseas profits back to the United States at a fraction of the normal corporate tax rate. Proponents claim that corporations would then invest these earnings in the United States, but the evidence shows that a tax holiday would fail to boost the economy while increasing deficits and encouraging companies to locate jobs and future investments overseas.
In this video, Jared Bernstein and Chuck Marr discuss the proposal and its likely harmful impact.
Duration: 7:19
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Statement: Paul N. Van de Water, Senior Fellow, on the CLASS Act
October 14, 2011
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ announcement today that her department has not been able to design a financially self-sustaining CLASS program within the law’s boundaries is sad but not surprising. It does not, however, eliminate the need for new … -
Media Briefing: The Effects of a Repatriation Tax Holiday
October 13, 2011
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities held a conference call briefing to discuss the impacts of a heavily lobbied proposal to allow U.S.-based multinational companies to pay sharply lower taxes on the profits they return from overseas. This is popularly known as a “repatriation tax holiday.”
Speakers will included Edward Kleinbard, former Chief of Staff of the non-partisan Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation and now Professor of Law at the University of Southern California and the author of a new important study that bears on these issues; Chuck Marr, the Center’s Director of Federal Tax Policy; and Center President Robert Greenstein, who will serve as moderator.Duration: 16:02
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Repatriation Tax Holiday Would Increase Deficits and Push Investment Overseas
October 12, 2011
Despite proponents' claims to the contrary, a proposal to enact a second tax holiday for the profits that U.S.-based multinational corporations bring back to the United States from foreign accounts would cost tens of billions of dollars in federal revenue — boosting deficits and debt – while not achieving its proponents' promise of … -
“Supercommittee” Should Develop Balanced Package of Tax Increases and Spending Cuts
September 27, 2011
The new congressional committee on deficit reduction (the so-called "supercommittee") not only can consider revenue increases, but must consider them — as well as spending cuts — if it's going to produce a balanced plan. [1] There are five main reasons why. Spending cuts alone can't do the job. … -
Converting Medicare to Premium Support Would Likely Lead to Two-Tier Health Care System
September 26, 2011
Some policymakers and analysts have proposed to convert Medicare to a "premium support" system — that is, replace its guarantee of health coverage with a flat payment that beneficiaries could use to help them purchase private insurance or, in some versions, traditional Medicare. But proponents have crafted a … -
Statement: James R. Horney, Vice President Of Federal Fiscal Policy, on President Obama’s Budget Package
September 19, 2011
President Obama proposed a balanced and well-designed package today that would boost economic growth and jobs in the short run while stabilizing federal debt as a share of the economy after 2013. By keeping federal debt held by the public from growing as a share of the economy, the President's … -
Will WIC Turn Away Eligible Low-Income Women and Children Next Year?
September 19, 2011
For each of the last 15 years, Administrations and Congresses of both parties have provided sufficient funding for the WIC nutrition program to serve all eligible low-income pregnant women, infants, and young children who apply. Leaders of the current Congress have reiterated this commitment rhetorically. But there are mounting questions as to … -
Testimony: Chad Stone, Chief Economist, on Policy Prescriptions for the Economy
September 15, 2011
Chairman Conrad, Senator Sessions, and other members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on policy prescriptions for the economy. To use the medical analogy in the title of this hearing, the U.S. economy is experiencing a long and difficult recovery from a severe acute illness — the 2007-2009 financial … -
Media Briefing: Examining the New 2010 Census Data on Poverty, Health Insurance Coverage, and Income
September 13, 2011
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities held a conference call briefing for journalists Tuesday, September 13, at 1:30 p.m. (ET) to examine the new Census Bureau data for 2010 on poverty, health insurance coverage, and income trends that will be released that morning.
Duration: 21:12
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Media Briefing: Raising the Medicare Eligibility Age: A Misguided Deficit-Reduction Proposal
September 12, 2011
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities will hold a conference call briefing on Monday, September 12 at 11:00 a.m. (ET) to discuss the impact of raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67, a proposal that the Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction is expected to consider in its effort to reduce the nation's long-term deficit.
Duration: 15:11
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Statement: Chad Stone, Chief Economist, on the August Employment Report
September 2, 2011
Today's jobs report highlights the critical need for policies to put people back to work. Employers added no net new jobs and the unemployment rate remained 9.1 percent. Most leading forecasters in government and out expect the unemployment rate to remain very high for the next few … -
Statement: James R. Horney, Vice President Of Federal Fiscal Policy, on the Congressional Budget Office Update of Its Budget and Economic Outlook
August 24, 2011
Today’s Congressional Budget Office update of the nation’s budget and economic outlook reinforces the point that policymakers should not let legitimate concerns about deficits and debt in coming decades prevent them from pursuing policies to boost economic growth and increase jobs in … -
Raising Medicare’s Eligibility Age Would Increase Overall Health Spending and Shift Costs to Seniors, States, and Employers
August 23, 2011
Raising Medicare's eligibility age from 65 to 67, which the new Joint Select Committee will likely consider this fall as a deficit-reduction measure, would not only fail to constrain health care costs across the economy; it would increase them. While this proposal would save the federal government money, it would do so by shifting costs … -
Statement: Chad Stone, Chief Economist, on the July Employment Report
August 5, 2011
Today's jobs report shows that the labor market continues to limp along rather than put people back to work. The share of the population with a job remains severely depressed and unemployment remains alarmingly high — with more than 40 percent of the unemployment rate … -
Statement: Robert Greenstein, President, on New Debt Ceiling Agreement
Updated August 2, 2011
The new debt ceiling agreement will achieve the essential goal of avoiding a potentially catastrophic default in the days ahead. But to say that the deal is likely to lead to highly unbalanced results would be an understatement. The deal places the nation on a disturbing policy course and sets what may become important precedents that are cause … -
Contrary to Speaker Boehner’s Claim, Budget Deal’s “Supercommittee” Can Consider Revenue Increases
August 1, 2011
Speaker of the House John Boehner erroneously claims that the legislation implementing the new debt limit agreement does not allow the joint congressional committee it establishes to propose revenue increases to help reduce deficits. The legislation does no such thing. Rather, it is the speaker's adamant opposition to … -
Statement: Robert Greenstein, President, on the Constitutional Balanced Budget Amendments Before the House
July 28, 2011
The House is scheduled to consider two versions of the constitutional balanced budget amendment later this week — H.J. Res 1 and H.J. Res 2. The first (H.J. Res 1) requires a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate for any legislation that includes a tax increase and also prohibits federal spending from exceeding 18 percent of GDP. Both of these … -
Press Release: Nobel Laureates and Leading Economists Oppose Constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment
Updated July 28, 2011
Organized Jointly With Phoebe Silag 202-775-8810 (office) 202-870-2644 (cell) A group of leading economists, including five Nobel Laureates in economics, today publicly released a letter to President Obama and Congress opposing a constitutional balanced budget amendment. The letter outlines the reasons why writing a balanced … -
A Constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment Threatens Great Economic Damage
Revised July 27, 2011
A balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution — including the version that the House is expected to consider this week — would be a highly ill-advised way to address the nation’s long-term fiscal problems. It would threaten significant economic harm while raising a host of problems for the operation of Social … -
Balanced Budget Amendment Would Require More Extreme Cuts Than Ryan Plan
Revised July 27, 2011
The constitutional balanced budget amendment that the House is expected to consider this week is a highly ideological measure that would force Congress to enact the Republican Study Committee's extreme budget plan or something similar to it. Even the House-passed budget plan of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would not pass … -
Statement: Robert Greenstein, President, on House Speaker Boehner’s New Budget Proposal
Updated July 27, 2011
House Speaker John Boehner’s new budget proposal would essentially require, as the price of raising the debt ceiling again early next year, a choice between deep cuts in the years immediately ahead in Social Security and Medicare benefits for current retirees, repeal of health reform’s coverage expansions, or wholesale … -
Testimony: Robert Greenstein, President, on “Deficit Reduction: A Review of Key Issues”
July 26, 2011
Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for the invitation to testify here today. As you well know, the nation is on an unsustainable fiscal course, and substantial changes in policy will be needed to right the ship. As a number of bipartisan commission have recommended over the past year, policymakers should aim … -
Gang of Six Plan Represents Useful Step Forward, Despite Troubling Elements
July 22, 2011
Some describe the Senate Gang of Six’s budget plan as a kind of fiscal Holy Grail. Others denounce it as a deeply unjust plan that cuts heavily into vital programs for the poor and the middle class while shielding the wealthy. Neither characterization withstands scrutiny. The plan is something of a mixed bag, with both very positive … -
Separating the Debt Limit from the Deficit Problem
July 21, 2011
Policymakers are risking a default on U.S. federal obligations because of a dispute over how to reduce budget deficits. The nation’s long-term fiscal path is unsustainable, and policymakers should address it in a timely and responsible way. But policymakers should not hold the debt limit hostage to approval of deficit … -
Greenstein Statement on the “Cut, Cap, and Balance Act” That the House Will Consider on July 19
Updated July 16, 2011
The “Cut, Cap, and Balance Act” that the House of Representatives will vote on next week stands out as one of the most ideologically extreme pieces of major budget legislation to come before Congress in years, if not decades. It would go a substantial way toward enshrining Grover … -
National Organizations Opposing the Balanced Budget Amendment
Updated July 14, 2011
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Testimony: Paul N. Van de Water, Senior Fellow, On the Financial Status of the Medicare Program
July 12, 2011
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Davis, and members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the invitation to appear before you today. Although Medicare faces significant financing challenges, claims that the program is nearing “bankruptcy” are highly misleading. The 2011 report of … -
Statement: Chad Stone, Chief Economist, on the June Employment Report
July 8, 2011
Today’s very disappointing employment report shows that two years after the technical end of the recession and after 16 straight months of private-sector job creation, the jobs deficit remains huge (see chart). The depth of the job losses from the recession is unprecedented since … -
Leading National Groups Urge Importance of Reducing Deficits Without Increasing Poverty
June 27, 2011
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Proposal to Establish Federal Medicaid “Blended Rate” Would Shift Significant Costs to States
June 24, 2011
An Obama Administration proposal that’s on the table for budget negotiators would reduce federal Medicaid expenditures by reducing the federal share of Medicaid and CHIP costs, shifting costs to states and likely prompting states to cut payments to health care providers and to scale back the health services that Medicaid covers for … -
Media Briefing: Strategies For Reining in Health Care Costs Beyond Measures in Health Reform
June 23, 2011
Peter Orszag, former Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, now Vice Chair of Global Banking at Citigroup and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, discusses and critiques various ideas and approaches for transforming the U.S. health care system in order to slow the rise in health care costs.
Duration: 16:24
