Facing the Future

This week on Facing the Future, we get a status check on the federal deficit and debt from Gordon Gray, Vice President of Budget Analysis at the Peter G Peterson Foundation. Spoiler alert: The debt may hit $40 trillion sooner than anticipated.

This week on Facing the Future we considered how both political parties have deserted the working class, the young and the American Dream. That's the conclusion of our guest Eugene Steuerle in his book Abandoned. Steuerle is an Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute and one of Washington’s most respected experts on the federal budget, tax policy and Social Security.

This week on Facing the Future, Veronique de Rugy and Jason Fichtner explain why Social Security reform is not only a retirement policy imperative but also a fiscal and market-stability imperative. They are the co-authors of a George Mason University Mercatus Center paper titled, "Social Security's Fiscal Gap and the Risk of Bond Market Strain."

This week on Facing the Future, Joshua Gordon, a Vice President of Health Care at Arnold Ventures, explains why growing health care costs are a challenge for family, business and government budgets. He also suggests some bipartisan cost control ideas.

This week on Facing the Future, Bobby Kogan of the Center for American Progress explains why the national debt matters more than it used to and why artificial intelligence is not likely to fix the problem.