Residents of Austin and San Antonio heard about ways to put the country on a more responsible fiscal path – and why it was crucial to start doing so soon – as The Concord Coalition’s Fiscal Solutions Tour visited Texas last week.
Robert L. Bixby, Concord’s executive director, pointed to the growing pressures on the federal budget from an aging population and rising health care costs. “We talk about the long-term challenges but the long term is really right in our face,” he said.
David M. Walker, CEO of the Comeback American Initiative, called for sweeping reforms in Social Security, health care, the tax system and how government agencies work: “This is not ‘nip and tuck.’ This is major surgery.”
Alice Rivlin, a senior fellow at Brookings, said she found her work last year on two bipartisan fiscal panels “rather heartening” because “there are opportunities for reform all over” and both groups were able to reach agreement in many areas involving both spending and revenue.
External links:
Concord’s Fiscal Solution Tour
