I’m thrilled to announce that The Concord Coalition is laying the groundwork for the 2011 session of The Peter G. Peterson Foundation Fiscal Internship Program. Piloted last year, this program awards stipend-supported internships focused on fiscal issues at different public policy institutions around Washington, DC. While each intern works on their own project with a scholar at a hosting institution, all students in the program come together once a week over the 10-week session for a seminar with a participating organization. With the generous support of the Peterson Foundation, this program introduces students from around the country to the political and policy realities of the federal budget, and gives them hands-on experience in defining solutions to our nation’s fiscal challenge.

Last summer’s successful first run of the Fiscal Internship Program placed five students with internships where they worked on projects ranging from tax expenditures and pension programs, to the complex relationships between federal, state, and local budgets. While each internship experience was unique, the chance to come together each week helped the group develop a shared understanding of the federal budget, and the landscape of institutions that study it. 

For the summer of 2011, we have expanded the opportunities of the...

"It isn't fiscally irresponsible to raise the debt limit, I think it would be rather irresponsible not to raise the debt limit because we have already incurred the bill."

That quote, from Concord executive director Bob Bixby, is one of many from our new videos highlighting some of the key points driving fiscal discussions in Washington.

We recorded the videos because the Senate is set to begin debate on increasing the debt ceiling while all of Congress awaits the President's budget proposal, which will purportedly contain the Administration's ideas for how to reduce the country's budget deficits. 

The first shows a discussion about the basics behind increasing the debt limit and how there are a few key budget process reforms tied to fiscal responsibility that have become part of the debate as the Senate approaches a difficult vote. We talk about the possible Senate amendments...

This week marks the debut of Concord's new, online budget game -- The Federal Budget Challenge.

Based on our Principles and Priorities game, which has been used for years in hundreds of classrooms and town hall meetings across the country, users work through 11 different policy categories and choose the spending and tax policies that fit their preferences while being mindful of their budgetary effects.

Developed in partnership with the California-based non-profit Next 10, this online tool tracks the effect of individual policy choices on interest costs and the projected 10-year budget deficit as the choices are made. The game has already been mentioned in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

It is important to point out what this game is and isn't. The...

The Tabulation and The Concord Coalition would like to congratulate our own Diane Lim Rogers for her blog EconomistMom.com being named as one of the Wall Street Journal's “Top 25" economics blogs.

In addition to being Concord's Chief Economist and the mother of four, Diane finds spare time to do her own blogging about sometimes complicated fiscal issues in an easily digestable, accesible and fun way -- and that skill is one of the many things that the Wall Street Journal recognized today.

Well done Diane!