Cutting Costs Cutting CostsCutting Costs
Inside the effort to improve the efficiency of federal operations.
ARCHIVES

The Sneaky Idea That Could End the Fiscal Cliff Showdown

  • By Derek Thompson
  • December 12, 2012
  • comments

If you're growing weary of the fiscal cliff, I do not blame you. Budget deals can be powerfully wearying stuff. But they are rarely as complicated as they seem from a distance.

Take, for example, the new proposal that some Republicans and Democrats think might end this terrible cliff showdown for good. It would involve a simple change to the way we measure cost-of-living. The proposal is called chained consumer price index -- or chained CPI. 

Please don't run away. Yes, this sounds like an awfully fusty and complicated idea. That's somewhat the point, as Matt Yglesias mischievously points out, since fusty and complicated ideas are the least likely to raise the ire of voters who don't understand them. But chained CPI, in addition to being key to a budget deal, is also simple to understand.

LESS SPENDING, MORE REVENUE

Each year, wages and prices tend to go up. You know that already. But by how much? Washington needs to know. Social Security checks are supposed to grow each year to keep up with the cost of living, and tax brackets are supposed to go up each year to avoid a stealth tax increase on households.

Today ...

Poll Shows Americans Fear Entitlement Cuts the Most in 'Cliff' Talks

  • By Shane Goldmacher
  • December 11, 2012
  • comments

As President Obama and congressional leaders race to avert the fiscal cliff, Americans remain concerned that whatever budget deal they strike will cut too much from Medicare and Social Security, according to a new poll.

More of the Americans surveyed (35 percent) are worried about such cutbacks than seeing their tax bill rise (27 percent), the latest United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll has found. Lagging behind in the public prioritization is the fear that a budget accord would fall short of deficit-reduction targets (15 percent) or that it will allow the federal government to spend too much in coming years (13 percent).

The plurality have already fingered a favorite scapegoat if Congress and the White House fail to reach an agreement: everyone. Exactly half of those surveyed said that they would blame President Obama, congressional Democrats, and congressional Republicans equally for the failure. While 27 percent of respondents would blame the GOP solely, only 16 percent said they’d blame Obama, and 5 percent said congressional Democrats.

Combined, the results should be welcome news for Democrats itching to take a hard line in the fiscal-cliff negotiations: They show the public is nervous, as they are, about entitlement cuts ...

How Obama Can Prevent Another Debt-Ceiling Crisis

  • By Jack M. Balkin
  • December 10, 2012
  • comments
As the country nears the fiscal cliff, it's deja vu all over again. Republicans are now asserting that they will refuse to raise the debt ceiling if they don't get their way in the negotiations. In response, some Democrats want President Obama to invoke the 14th Amendment and raise the debt ceiling unilaterally. What they don't understand is that doing so is not only legally dicey, it is also completely unnecessary for Obama to prevail. Obama's correct--and constitutional--response to Republican intransigence is the same as Bill Clinton's before him: a replay of the 1995 government shutdown. If Republicans force that confrontation, they will lose, just as they did before.

Republicans are in a pretty poor bargaining position in the fiscal cliff negotiations. They know that if President Obama simply does nothing, the Bush tax cuts will expire on January 1st and defense spending will be cut. At that point Obama can propose lowering taxes for the middle class--but not the rich--and raising defense spending as part of new grand bargain on taxes and spending. The Republicans will be hard pressed to say no. After all, if they refuse to play ball, all they will get ...

Gephardt: Fiscal Cliff Deal Will Cost Some Lawmakers Their Jobs

  • By Chris Frates
  • December 7, 2012
  • comments

Getting a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff is going to cost some lawmakers their jobs.

“There are people who are going to have to vote for this and they’re going to lose their next election. I can swear to you that’s going to happen,” former Democratic House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt told the Alley today.

And the difficulty in getting a deal is why Gephardt joined with former congressional leaders including former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert and former Senate majority leaders Tom Daschle, a Democrat, and Trent Lott, a Republican, to pen a letter to the editor in The Washington Post calling on the public to support President Obama and congressional leaders as they work to cut a deal.

“The men and women you elected and reelected will need your support in making difficult decisions and asking for the sacrifices we will all have to make. We ask that you join us in adding your voice to this national conversation,” the former congressional leaders wrote.

The country’s leaders don’t need more input on what they should do; rather, they need to know the public supports a deal, Gephardt said.

“When you’ve been in ...

Alan Simpson Talks Fiscal Cliff on The Daily Show

  • By Mark Micheli
  • December 6, 2012
  • comments

Former U.S. Senator and Fiscal Commission co-chair Alan Simpson dropped by "The Daily Show" last night to talk about the fiscal cliff and solutions proposed by the Simpson-Bowles deficit proposal. Simpson and Stewart talked at length about the national debt.

Watch the extended three-part interview below:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3: