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Facing the Future

The Concord Coalition

How the nation’s fiscal and economic challenges, and possible solutions, impact current and future generations.

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21 episodes
weekly
Avg 44 min
English

Episodes 21

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#440
Wednesday · 44 min
Dividend Checks With No Dividend
This week on Facing the Future, we discussed President Trump's promise of $5,000 checks, tariff income, war spending and the economy with Jim Capretta, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
#439
September 9 · 44 min
The Bond Market Is Sending A Warning On Debt
This week on Facing the Future, Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, explains why the cost of borrowing is going up and the implications of higher interest rates for families, businesses and the federal budget. She also discusses inflation, tariffs and Social Security reform.
#438
August 26 · 44 min
Walking on a Fragile Fiscal Cliff
This week on Facing the Future, former CBO director Doug Elmendorf discusses the $40 trillion debt and why it matters now, not just in the future. He also gives his assessment of what artificial intelligence could mean for the economy and the federal budget.
#437
August 20 · 44 min
Social Security Needs Reform, Not A Bailout
The week on Facing the Future, former Public Trustee of Social Security Dr. Charles Blahous describes why the program is in need of reform as it approaches trust fund insolvency in 2032. He also looks at the generational impact of various reform options.
#436
August 12 · 44 min
Congress Needs To Do Its Job
This week on Facing the Future, we discuss why Congress never does a budget and why that matters for the Constitutional process, the growth of the debt and the fate of younger generations. Our guest is Thomas Kahn, Director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University.
#435
August 5 · 44 min
Mark Zandi on the Economy and Corrosive Debt
This week on Facing the Future, Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics, examines the state of the economy, the effect of artificial intelligence and what a debt-induced crisis might look like.
#434
July 29 · 44 min
The Debt Moves Closer to $40 Trillion
This week on Facing the Future, we get a status check on the federal deficit and debt from Gordon Gray, Vice President of Budget Analysis at the Peter G Peterson Foundation. Spoiler alert: The debt may hit $40 trillion sooner than anticipated.
#433
July 23 · 44 min
Fiscal Policies Have Abandoned the Young and the Working Class
This week on Facing the Future we considered how both political parties have deserted the working class, the young and the American Dream. That's the conclusion of our guest Eugene Steuerle in his book Abandoned. Steuerle is an Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute and one of Washington’s most respected experts on the federal budget, tax policy and Social Security.
#432
July 15 · 44 min
Delaying Social Security Reform Increases Fiscal and Economic Risks
This week on Facing the Future, Veronique de Rugy and Jason Fichtner explain why Social Security reform is not only a retirement policy imperative but also a fiscal and market-stability imperative. They are the co-authors of a George Mason University Mercatus Center paper titled, "Social Security's Fiscal Gap and the Risk of Bond Market Strain."
#431
July 8 · 44 min
The Hard Choices of Health Care Reform
This week on Facing the Future, Joshua Gordon, a Vice President of Health Care at Arnold Ventures, explains why growing health care costs are a challenge for family, business and government budgets. He also suggests some bipartisan cost control ideas.
#430
July 1 · 44 min
Deficit Dove Says The National Debt Matters More Than It Used To
This week on Facing the Future, Bobby Kogan of the Center for American Progress explains why the national debt matters more than it used to and why artificial intelligence is not likely to fix the problem.
#429
June 24 · 44 min
GAO Warns on the Nation's Fiscal Health
This week on Facing the Future, we hear why the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) is warning the President and Congress that urgent and sustained action is needed to improve the nation's fiscal outlook. Jeff Arkin, Director of Strategic Issues at GAO, is our guest.
#428
June 17 · 44 min
Social Security's Turn For The Worse
This week on Facing the Future, Mark Warshawsky of the American Enterprise Institute explains why the projected finances of both Social Security and Medicare were substantially worse in the 2026 trustees report than they were last year and why early action is the best way to prevent sudden cuts.
#427
June 11 · 44 min
Big Budget Decisions Require Public Input
This week on Facing the Future, G. William Hoagland, Senior Vice President of the Bipartisan Policy Center, lays out the case for public engagement on major budget decisions, gives an update on the federal budget and reacts to the new Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports.
#426
June 3 · 44 min
Mobilizing the Public on the Deficit and Debt
This week on Facing the Future, host Bob Bixby joins Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Jonathan Silver of Affinity Solutions and Andrew Lewis of the University of Cincinnati's Portman Center in a panel discussion on strategies for getting the public to put deficit reduction on the political agenda.
#425
May 20 · 44 min
Defense Increase Ask Is Short On Details
This week on Facing the Future, Todd Harrison of the American Enterprise Institute lays out the pros and cons of the president's request for a 50 percent increase in the defense budget.
#424
May 13 · 44 min
Congress Should Stop Fast-Tracking Higher Debt
This week on Facing the Future, former U.S. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) explains why he supports a new fiscal commission as a way of finding solutions to the nation's growing debt and how reinstating the "Conrad rule" in the Senate would help.
#423
May 6 · 44 min
Congress Does a Budget Resolution, One Year Late
This week on Facing the Future, Molly Reynolds of the Brookings Institution explains why the budget resolution recently passed by Congress is highly unusual and a year behind schedule.
#422
April 29 · 44 min
College Students Are Up To The Fiscal Challenge
This week on Facing the Future, students from the University of Iowa and their faculty adviser Dr. Alexandra Nica, describe how they reduced the debt-to-GDP ratio over the next 30 years and what they learned in winning this year's nationwide Fiscal Challenge competition.
#421
April 22 · 44 min
Are Democrats Backing "Slopulist" Tax Cuts?
This week on Facing the Future, Ben Ritz, Vice President of Policy Development at the Progressive Policy Institute, discusses why new tax cut proposals have him wondering whether Democrats learned the wrong lesson from 2024.

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