Budget Watchdog Groups Call For End To Deficit Financing For Tax And Spending Bills

Robert Bixby
Robert Bixby is Executive Director of The Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to educating the public about federal budget issues and their consequences for the future.  The Concord Coalition was founded in 1992 by former U.S. Senators Warren Rudman (R-NH) and the late Paul Tsongas (D-MA), and former Secretary of Commerce Peter G. Peterson.  Mr. Bixby was named Executive Director in October 1999, after serving as the Coalition’s Policy Director, National Field Director, and in other capacities since 1992. 

Robert Greenstein
Founder and Executive Director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Robert Greenstein is considered an expert on the federal budget and in particular, the impact of tax and budget proposals on low-income people.  Mr. Greenstein has written numerous reports, analyses, op-ed pieces, and magazine articles on poverty-related issues.  He appears on national television news and public affairs programs and is frequently asked to testify on Capitol Hill.

In 1996, Mr. Greenstein was awarded aMacArthur Fellowship. The MacArthur Foundation cited him for making “the Center a model for a non-partisan research and policy organization.”

In 1994, Mr. Greenstein was appointed by President Clinton to serve on the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform.  Prior to founding the Center, Mr. Greenstein was Administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he directed the agency that operates the federal food assistance programs, with a staff of 2,500 and a budget of $15 billion.

Maya MacGuineas
Maya MacGuineas is President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and the Director of the Fiscal Policy at the Program at the New America Foundation. Her areas of expertise include the budget, entitlements, and tax policy. Her work has been published in a variety of outlets including The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Monthly and she has testified multiple times before Congress.

Before coming to New America, Ms. MacGuineas worked as a Social Security adviser to the McCain presidential campaign, where she helped craft the Senator’s Social Security reform proposal and traveled with the campaign.  Prior to that, she worked at the Brookings Institution, the Concord Coalition, and on Wall Street.  She received her Master in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She serves on the Boards of a number of nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations.

Joseph J. Minarik
Joseph J. Minarik is Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Committee for Economic Development.  Dr. Minarik served as Executive Director for Policy and Chief Economist of the House Budget Committee in 1991-1992 and as Associate Director for Economic Policy at the Office of Management and Budget in 1993-1996.  In the latter position he helped formulate the Clinton Administration’s program to eliminate the budget deficit, which evolved into the bipartisan balanced budget agreement of 1997. 

Dr. Minarik has extensive experience in both economic research and public service. As an academic researcher, he has investigated topics such as poverty, income security policy, the distribution of income, the consequences of inflation, fiscal policy, and tax policy.

Before his work at the House Budget Committee, Dr. Minarik served as Executive Director of the Joint Economic Committee of the Congress, as Senior Research Associate at the Urban Institute, as Deputy Assistant Director of the Tax Analysis Division of the Congressional Budget Office, and as Research Associate in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution.

Charles Stenholm
Charles W. Stenholm is a member of the Board of Directors of Centrists.Org.  For 26 years Mr. Stenholm represented the 17th District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he earned a reputation for building bipartisan alliances in areas as diverse as agriculture, resource conservation, food safety, Social Security, energy, health care, and budget.  Mr. Stenholm crafted balanced budget plans every year from 1995 through 2004, which regularly received wide national acclaim as the most honest, pragmatic, and fair proposals on the table.   

Mr. Stenholm was a founder of the “Blue Dog Coalition,” a group of moderate and conservative Democrats, and was co-chair of the Public Pension Reform Caucus, the Sound Dollar Caucus, and the U.S.-Mexico Business Caucus.  Mr. Stenholm graduated from Tarleton State Junior College and Texas Tech University, and has received honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Abilene Christian, Hardin-Simmons, and McMurry Universities.