Bruce Bartlett ponders the question in his Forbes column today.  His conclusion: I don’t think any health expert doubts that it is possible for the U.S. to spend far less on health than it does today while improving the general quality of health....

Only budget dweebs like me would find this new CBO report on “Measuring the Effects of the Business Cycle on the Federal Budget” fascinating.  The study estimates “cyclically adjusted” levels of revenues, outlays and deficits–those that would occur...

Donald Marron and I agree about what’s wrong with the House climate bill passed last week–just another example of how economists on different sides of the political aisle often share more common ground than any other two people on different sides of...

Last Thursday the Congressional Budget Office released its analysis of the long-term budget outlook. (I think I got distracted for a few days by the news about Michael Jackson–a different “sustainability” problem…)  The basic shape and scope of the...

Back a few months ago when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was signed into law, I tried to explain that the package was trying to do a lot of things–not just “stimulate” the short-term economy–and that in evaluating how well the...