Robert L. Bixby

May 30, 2024 | aei.org | Sita Slavov |Robert L. Bixby |Phil Smith

AEI’s Sita Slavov joins The Concord Coalition’s radio show and podcast, Facing the Future, to discuss her recent essay Making Tough Fiscal Choices to Protect Future Generations. She talked about the urgent need for fiscal reforms, including Social Security adjustments, a carbon tax, and broadening the tax base, to ensure economic sustainability for future generations. Read summary and listen to the podcast here.

Feb 18, 2024 | thehill.com | Robert L. Bixby

We’ve all heard that if you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out, but if you put a frog in warm water and slowly turn up the heat it will stay put until boiled to death. That may or may not be true, but it is a useful allegory of how incremental changes can accumulate to dangerous or even fatal levels if ignored. The unfortunate frog came to mind as I read through the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2024 to 2034 released last week by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Jul 18, 2023 | thehill.com | Robert L. Bixby

Following the passage of the , House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) expressed interest in appointing a bipartisan commission to address the nation’s long-term fiscal imbalance. That idea has now drawn support from the newly formed Bipartisan Fiscal Forum. These are very promising developments, but only if both parties are prepared to put everything on the table. This is not simply a political imperative. It is a policy imperative as well.

Mar 20, 2023 | thehill.com | Robert L. Bixby

President Biden’s FY 2024 budget promises to reduce future deficits by $2.8 trillion over the next 10 years. That’s a big number. It is not enough, however, to prevent the debt from climbing to a record 110 percent of GDP , up from 98 percent this year and more than twice its average over the past 50 years. It is also not enough to prevent interest on the debt from doubling over the next 10 years and reaching a record high as a share of the economy by 2032. The record is 3.2 percent of GDP in 1991.

Mar 15, 2023 | dl-online.com | Robert L. Bixby

President Biden’s budget is the opening move in what will likely be a contentious and protracted process. While it is clear that the president’s heavy reliance on tax increases to achieve his deficit reduction goal is “dead on arrival” with Republicans on Capitol Hill, it is equally clear that a deficit reduction plan based entirely on spending cuts, as many Republicans have insisted on, would be dead on arrival at the White House and in the Senate.