This paper describes the deficiencies of the measures used to calculate the federal budget, make revenue and spending projections, and assess the sustainability of current fiscal policies. The nature of the deficiencies hides the tremendous impact that Social Security and Medicare commitments...

In the cover story, find out why the federal government's days of scaling back are over. Fueling the buildup are corporate accounting scandals, the war on terrorism and demands for a Medicare prescription drug program.

Figuring out how to equalize the tax burden across generations is easy. Deciding who's going to pay for it is the hard part.

Increased spending on the war, domestic security and Medicaid could slow the rebound in government budgets.

An argument that the debate between Congress and the President over how to balance the budget is not simply irresponsible political posturing, but the result of serious and reasoned differences of opinion on the economic consequences of specific spending and tax decisions.

An investigation of the allocative consequences of resource shifts that would result if the Clinton administration's budget plan is adopted, examining the timing and composition of both net outlay cuts and net revenue increases represented in the budget proposal, as well as the generational...