#Congress

The next Congress will face difficult budget issues, ranging from the pending insolvency of the trust fund for Social Security disability insurance to proposals to overhaul the inefficient tax code. Yet many candidates for federal office this year -- Democrats, Republicans, incumbents…

Although Federal Reserve officials generally have their hands full with monetary policy, congressional mistakes and miscalculations on the federal budget have led outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to repeatedly offer suggestions on fiscal policy that lawmakers would do well…

Given the acrimonious political environment and the wide discrepancy between the House and Senate budgets, the conference committee now scheduled to report by Dec.13 begins its work with low expectations. However, if the committee approaches its task with flexibility and…

The hope for "regular order" on a budget resolution stalled this week as unfortunate partisan bickering continued over whether lawmakers should proceed with a House and Senate conference committee. Republicans on Tuesday blocked an attempt by Senate Majority Leader Harry…

I. Introduction Federal borrowing is once again near the statutory debt limit. At the end of last year, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner notified Congress that the $16.394 trillion limit had been reached and that his department would begin…

Over the past several weeks, there has been a flurry of activity on Capitol Hill as Congress considers legislation to reauthorize federal surface transportation programs. The previous authorization bill was enacted in 2005 and expired in 2009. Since then, Congress…

Many people were urging members of the deficit reduction super committee to “go big.” Now it appears that they will just go away. It’s yet another disappointment in a year that has seen many failed attempts at a “grand bargain”…

Efforts by the bipartisan “Gang of Six” in the Senate to forge a comprehensive budget deal have received vigorous support from members of The Concord Coalition's Board of Directors who have previously served in Congress.“The cooperative approach taken by the…