Do-Nothing Congress as a Cure  —  A trick question: If Congress takes no action in coming years, what will happen to the budget deficit?  —  It will shrink — and shrink a lot.  This simple fact may offer the best hope for deficit reduction.  —  As federal law currently stands …

How Congress can balance the budget in eight years by literally doing nothing.  This is not a joke.  —  The Simpson-Bowles blue-ribbon deficit commission longs to slash Social Security and defense spending.  The Bipartisan Policy Center's Alice Rivlin and Peter Domenici yearn for a value-added tax.

Obama's Speech Was a Waste of Breath  —  Obama had a difficult assignment in this speech, partly because of the exaggerated hopes for it (see previous post).  Even allowing for that, it was weak both politically and substantively.  My instant unguarded reaction, in fact, was to find it not just weak but pitiful.

Obama speech to focus on four steps for fiscal reform  —  In a major speech Wednesday on fiscal policy, President Obama will lay out four steps he thinks the federal government should take if it wants to balance its budget.  —  Obama will talk about the need to keep domestic spending low …

CBO: Budget deal cuts this fiscal year's deficit by just $353 million, not $38 billion touted  —  WASHINGTON — A new budget estimate released Wednesday shows that the spending bill negotiated between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner would produce less than 1 percent …

Obama's Speech on Reducing the Budget (Text)  —  Following is a prepared text of President Obama's debt-reduction speech, to be delivered on Wednesday at The George Washington University, as released by the White House:  —  Good afternoon.  It's great to be back at GW.