I just listened to this over the last couple of days in my car and thought some folks here might find it worth listening to. The folks on the panel represent a remarkable collection of experts - not all of whom agree, of course, and some of whom present some ideas that I, personally, found rather distasteful. But all of it is quite thoughtful.
It's just a little dated in that they do discuss the then-impending expiration of the 2001 tax cuts, but given that they've mostly just kicked the can down the road by a couple of years, that's not much of a loss.
National Debt: The Threat and Potential Solutions
David Walker, Former U.S. Comptroller General; Former Head, U.S. Government Accountability Office Robert L. Bixby, Executive Director, The Concord Coalition Michael Boskin, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution; Professor of Economics, Stanford University; Chairman, President George H.W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisors Isabel Sawhill, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution Tom Campbell, Visiting Professor of Economics and Law, Chapman University; Former Director of Finance, State of Calfornia; Former Member of the Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress - Moderator
We are inundated with facts and figures that support the argument that the U.S. government is headed toward fiscal crisis, yet we rarely read or hear a discussion of how such a crisis can be avoided. Experts with years of front-line experience in the fiscal jungle of Washington share their ideas on what steps should be taken now to place the nation on a sustainable course of fiscal responsibility.
This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on September 23, 2010