On March 10, the House Budget Committee held a hearing on “lifting the crushing burden of debt.”
Also on March 10, the Congressional Budget Office published the latest edition of its periodic report on options for reducing the budget deficit.
A March 9 Bloomberg poll found significant opposition to many budget cuts proposed by Republicans.
A March 9 Harris poll found strong opposition to cutting Social Security or Medicare benefits to deal with the budgetary problems of those programs. People are also opposed to raising taxes to fund them.
A March 8 working paper from the European Central Bank examined the use of supranational institutions to control government debt.
A March 7 Harris poll found strong majority support for every government program that people were asked about with the sole exception of foreign aid.
Also on March 7, Macroeconomic Advisers estimated that fiscal year 2011 budget cuts proposed by Republicans will reduce real economic growth by 0.4 percent this year and raise the unemployment rate by 0.3 percent.
And on March 7, CBO director Doug Elemendorf made a presentation in which he emphasized the long-term nature of our fiscal problems.
On March 4, the U.S. Government Accountability Office published a report estimating that it would save the government $5.5 billion over 30 years by replacing the $1 bill with a $1 coin.
In a March 3 commentary, former House Appropriations Committee staff director Scott Lilly examined the implications of proposed budget cuts on specific programs. He questions whether the American people really support things such as cutbacks in meat inspectors, transportation security, clean water programs and others that Republicans propose to implement.
On January 31, the Congressional Research Service published a report on the experiences of other countries in reducing central government budget deficits.
I last posted items on this topic on March 4.
Bruce Bartlett is an American historian and columnist who focuses on the intersection between politics and economics. He blogs daily and writes a weekly column at The Fiscal Times. Bartlett has written for Forbes Magazine and Creators Syndicate, and his work is informed by many years in government, including as a senior policy analyst in the Reagan White House. He is the author of seven books including the New York Times best-seller, Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (Doubleday, 2006).
