South By North Strategies, Ltd.

Earlier this month, a coalition of leading think tanks released “a budget blueprint for economic recovery and fiscal responsibility.” From the executive summary:

The most pressing economic problem today is the recession. Among our longer-term problems is the unsustainability of the national budget. Bush-era tax cuts and a shrinking economy have led to significant budget deficits. These deficits are expected to decline as the economy recovers; however, national debt is projected to grow to unsustainable levels in the coming decades as rising health care costs lead to rapidly increasing federal expenditures.
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National economic policy should be designed to address these dual considerations – the need to create jobs and invest in America today, and the need to place the federal budget on a sustainable path for the future.
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Our Fiscal Security (OFS), a collaborative effort of Demos, the Economic Policy Institute, and The Century Foundation, proposes a budgetary path to achieve these goals. This path stabilizes debt as a share of the economy without demanding draconian cuts to national investments or to vital safety net programs. In fact, we believe that job creation and long-term investments should be enhanced now to ensure a strong economy in the future.