Don‘t Forget the Budget‘s Pre-Existing Condition

This week on Facing the Future we took a step back from the day-to-day budget battles in Washington to consider the overall fiscal outlook. Our guest was Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who recently published a comprehensive chart book on federal spending, taxes and deficits. Among the questions we discussed were: What is driving CBO’s projected $112 trillion deficit over 30 years, and why the deficit could top $3 trillion yet again within a decade? Later, Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson joined me and Gorman for an update on developments in Washington, including the short-term ($480 billion) bipartisan compromise to lift the debt limit.