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Director’s Desk
Director’s Desk Over the last year fiscal hawks have been warning that if we didn’t drastically cut spending and enact major reforms in entitlement programs to reduce the federal budget deficit, the United States would become another Greece. Greece, however, after years of severe fiscal austerity, is now running a budget surplus, but the economy
Director’s Desk
Over the last year fiscal hawks have been warning that if we didn’t drastically cut spending and enact major reforms in entitlement programs to reduce the federal budget deficit, the United States would become another Greece. Greece, however, after years of severe fiscal austerity, is now running a budget surplus, but the economy is paying
Odds of an October Shutdown Down to 10 Percent
Discretionary spending has declined sharply, from a peak of $1.347 billion in FY11, to approximately $986 billion this year. The FY14 House Republican Budget Resolution seeks to further cut discretionary spending, to $967 billion, with the bulk of the cuts targeted at non-defense agencies, in the cases of some departments by more than 20%. Late
Director’s Desk: June 27, 2013
Earlier this month the House passed two appropriations bills, Milcon/VA, and Homeland Security, both of which the president opposes. No appropriations bills have come to the floor in the Senate. As discussed in the newsletter, with a $91 billion
Defense Cuts are on the Way, Part 1: $100 billion, $300 billion, or $500 billion?
The question for defense spending is not whether it’s going to decrease over the next five years; rather it’s how far and how fast. The good news for defense is that it’s unlikely to shrink as much as it did following the end of the Korean War (down 43%), the Vietnam War (33%), or the Cold
The Outlook for Discretionary Spending: Cloudy with Patches of Bright
London weather is notoriously cloudy, and when it’s not actually raining it’s likely to be misting, and nearly always dark and dreary. Sunny days are rare, especially in the winter. My favorite weather forecast is “cloudy with patches of bright”, which might be too optimistic an outlook for discretionary spending in the next couple of
Director’s Desk: June 10, 2013
I’ve been closely following the federal budget for more than two decades, and at no point have things been more confusing, not only to observers like myself, but more importantly to federal managers and executives who are trying to plan their department budgets. One of our goals is to try to explain both the process
Director’s Desk: May 16, 2013
More good news bad news: Unlike this year, the sequesters scheduled for FY14 to FY21 will not cut spending across the board, but simply impose caps on discretionary spending, which ought to allow agencies to make more rational budget decisions. The bad news is that by making the cuts more manageable, it’s less likely to
The Federal Deficit is Shrinking Dramatically: So Why Aren’t We Celebrating?
This year’s federal budget deficit is shrinking, and shrinking faster than anyone had anticipated: surely this is good news. There have been a number of really positive developments on the budget and the economy over the last several months, mostly unexpected. Just last month, the House and Senate both passed budget resolutions, for the first
Director’s Desk: May 8, 2013
For the first time in five years, both the House and the Senate have passed their respective FY14 budget resolutions. The next step in the budget process mandates that the two chambers go to conference, and sets a target date of April 15 to produce a concurrent budget resolution, although the deadline is rarely met.