Facing the Future

This week on Facing the Future Dr. Kent Smetters, faculty director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model, describes various reform options from differing political perspectives that can maintain trust fund solvency, improve the budget outlook and grow the economy.

This week on Facing the Future, Dr. Phillip Joyce of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy describes the substantive, procedural and Constitutional fiscal challenges that Congress has repeatedly kicked down the road.

This week on Facing the Future, former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum, explains why problems in France's bond market carry a warning for the U.S. He also argues that the Federal Reserve should keep raising interest rates to fight inflation.

This week on Facing the Future, Ben Ritz of the Progressive Policy Institute explains why the rising national debt has become a big cost-of-living problem.

This week on Facing the Future, we discuss two very different visions of how to keep Social Security solvent over the long-term without a bailout from the U.S. Treasury. Wendell Primus of the Brookings Institution and Romina Boccia of the Cato Institute debate the options.