Director’s Desk
Director’s Desk
On Monday the Congressional Budget Office issued its new Budget and Economic Outlook: 2015 to 2025. There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that deficits have come down dramatically since the record $1.2 trillion deficit in FY09, to $483 billion in FY14, and will shrink even more this year and next, to
Director’s Desk
Kenneth Gold | January 9, 2015
A major decision point facing the 114th Congress will be how to deal with federal spending beyond the end of the current fiscal year. The December 2013 Ryan-Murray agreement raised baseline discretionary spending by about $9 billion per year for FY14 and 15, but expires at the end of the year. Unless Congress and the
Director’s Desk
Kenneth Gold | October 30, 2014
Although the current continuing resolution (CR) expires in just six weeks, and Congress isn’t scheduled to return for another two weeks, no one is mentioning the “S word” (shutdown) this year. Instead, the question seems to be whether Congress will be able to pass an FY15 omnibus bill, or whether we’ll have to settle for
Director’s Desk
Kenneth Gold | October 9, 2014
Yesterday the Congressional Budget Office issued its preliminary deficit projection for FY 2014, estimating a deficit of under a half trillion dollars. The FY14 deficit of $486 billion would be $195 billion under last year’s deficit, and the fifth consecutive year that the deficit has fallen as a percentage of GDP since the FY09 record
Director’s Desk
Kenneth Gold | September 5, 2014
It’s September in Washington (yes, I know it’s September elsewhere as well). We’ve just returned to work from the long Labor Day weekend, school buses are again making our nightmarish traffic even worse, and the Washington Nationals are in first place in the National League East. Congress has returned from their August recess, and we’re
Director’s Desk
Kenneth Gold | July 9, 2014
Prior to the start of this year’s World Cup, the United States had reached the semifinals only once, in 1930, at the first World Cup. The US team advanced beyond the round of 16 only one other time, when they beat Mexico in 2002, and reached the quarter finals. At the start of this year’s
Director’s Desk: June 9, 2014
Kenneth Gold | June 9, 2014
It’s been thirty-six years since Affirmed won the Triple Crown, horse racing’s greatest challenge. With California Chrome’s defeat on Saturday, twelve horses have won the first two legs of the Triple Crown since 1978, only to fail in the 1½-mile Belmont Stakes, the longest and most demanding of the three races. Some observers believe that
Director’s Desk: April 24, 2014
Kenneth Gold | April 24, 2014
When asked what they remember as the most significant event of 1994, people tend to be divided between the massive 6.7 magnitude Northridge earthquake that devastated Los Angeles and the arrest of O.J. Simpson on murder charges following the infamous slow motion car chase in the white Bronco. Some of us, however, also remember 1994
Director’s Desk: March 6, 2014
Kenneth Gold | March 6, 2014
On Tuesday the FY15 congressional budget process officially began with President Obama submitting his FY15 budget request to Congress. The discretionary portion of the president’s $3.9 trillion request stays within the caps agreed to in last year’s omnibus appropriations bill, but also contains a $56 billion supplemental “wish list” of additional spending to be divided
Director’s Desk: February 12, 2014
Kenneth Gold | February 12, 2014
Congress has avoided going over yet another fiscal cliff, with the House passing a “clean” debt limit bill yesterday, and Senate passage expected later today. This will mark the fourth major piece of bipartisan legislation passed since last October’s 16-day government shutdown that includes the two-year Ryan-Murray budget agreement, the FY14 omnibus appropriations bill, and