Celebrating 25 Years of Grassroots Fiscal Policy Activism
Throughout the year, The Concord Coalition will be celebrating our 25th Anniversary. We will be drawing on our history of policy analysis, education, and grassroots engagement to help promote fiscal responsibility and pave the way forward for a better economic future.
25 Lessons Learned for our Fiscal Future
- Fiscal Policy Remains Unsustainable
- Demographics Drive Our Long-term Fiscal Challenges
- Popular Options, Like Cutting Waste, Fraud and Abuse or Growing Our Way Out of Debt, Are Not Enough
- The Independence and Credibility of the CBO Are Essential
- The American People, if Presented with Credible and Understandable Information, Can Make Tough Fiscal Policy Trade-offs
- Making Health Care Programs Sustainable Depends on Controlling Costs
- Doing Nothing Is Not a Plan to Fix Social Security
- Trust Fund Accounting Obscures Fiscal Problems of Social Security and Medicare
- It’s Important to Distinguish Between Short-Term Cyclical Deficits and Long-Term Structural Deficits
- Bipartisan Policy Changes Can Put the Debt on a Downward Trajectory
- It's Easier to Correct Overshooting on Deficit Reduction Than Undershooting
- A Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution is Not Necessary for Responsible Fiscal Policy
- Tax Cuts Don't Pay for Themselves
- The Debt Limit is More Trouble Than It’s Worth
- Mandatory Spending Growth Means the Budget Debate is Increasingly Focused on a Shrinking Part of the Budget
- The Broken Budget Process Should Be Refocused on Long-Term Planning
- Expressions of Concern About the Deficit Are Not Always What They Seem
- ‘Tax Expenditures’ Should Be Considered Large Spending Programs
- PAYGO is an Important Standard
- Both Sides are Guilty of Budget Gimmicks
- Changes in Borrowing Costs Can Have a Dramatic Impact on the Federal Budget
- Entitlement Reform Should Reduce Subsidies for Those Who Don't Need Them
- Budget Process Changes or Trigger Mechanisms Can Not Substitute for Political Will
- Sequestration is a Bad Way to Make Budget Cuts
- Everything Needs To Be On the Table in Budget Negotiations
Anniversary Events
Former Senators Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Judd Gregg (R-NH) joined The Concord Coalition at the Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH, for a discussion on fiscal policy in honor of Concord's 25th Anniversary.
Congresswoman Nikki Tsongas, wife of The Concord Coalition's co-founder, Paul Tsongas, joined us at the Colonial Inn in Concord, Massachusetts for a celebration of the Concord Coalition. An expert panel with Doug Elmendorf, dean of the Harvard Kennedy School and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, Scot Lehigh, columnist for the Boston Globe, and Concord's executive director Robert Bixby, discussed current budget issues and looked forward on Concord's continuing mission.
"Budget Chaos in Context." Policy Experts gathered at the National Press Club in Washington, DC to discuss lessons learned and how to improve the fiscal future.