Description:

"Restoring Fiscal Democracy: Can the Budget Squeeze Give Us Another Shot at Greatness?" by Eugene Steuerle, Institute Fellow and Richard B. Fisher Chair, The Urban Institute 

This is part of the IPR Seminar Series on Performance Measurement and Rewards.

Abstract: Today, the nation (and much of the developed world) is at a major fiscal turning point, presaged but misunderstood by focus on one symptom—deficits. In point of fact, the major political parties have increasingly conspired to create a series of public programs that automatically grow so fast that they claim every future dollar of revenue. At the same time, they have reduced taxes far below what is necessary to pay the bills, largely by passing burdens onto future taxpayers. Among the deadly economic and political consequences are a lack of fiscal space to respond to new recessions or needs and a budget for a declining nation that underinvests in its children. The solution rests not just in deficit reduction to maintain the budget priorities of dead and retired legislators, but in restoring to future generations the fiscal freedom to choose their own priorities, allocate their own resources, and reach for their own stars.

Eugene Steuerle is an Urban Institute Fellow and the Richard B. Fisher Chair. Among his previous positions, he has served as deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury for tax analysis, president of the National Tax Association, and vice president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. He is a co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and the Urban Institute Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy. Steuerle is the author, co-author, or co-editor of 15 books and close to 1,000 articles, briefs, and congressional testimonies. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.