Moderator
Ben White, Chief Economic Correspondent and Columnist, Politico
Speakers
Maya MacGuineas, President, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget; Head, Campaign to Fix the Debt
David Perdue, U.S. Senator, Georgia
Mark Warner, U.S. Senator, Virginia
Mark Weinberger, Global Chairman and CEO, EY
The U.S. national debt is expected to reach 75 percent of GDP this year, having risen from less than 40 percent in 2008 before the financial crisis and recession. Even while global demand for dollar assets has allowed the United States to fund itself at low rates, with the debt now approaching $20 trillion and interest rates expected to rise, fiscal pressures are likely to reemerge as a central policy concern for the next President. At the same time, many Republicans and Democrats alike agree that the U.S. tax code is badly in need of a makeover to address fairness, efficiency, and simplicity -- even while the two sides disagree on the changes to be made. The rash of corporate "inversions" by which U.S. corporations have moved their official headquarters abroad to escape U.S. taxes, and the Treasury Department's steps to curb such moves, further illustrate the importance of tax reform. How should the tax code be rewritten to provide a competitive landscape for U.S. companies without increasing the federal deficit? And what is the right long-term approach to dealing with the debt? The future of the U.S. economy depends on the answers.
