CFR PRESENTS

Renewing America

Ideas and initiatives for rebuilding American economic strength.

Posts by Category

Showing posts for "Renewing America Interview"

The Renewing America Interview: Robert Reischauer on Fiscal Reform

by Jonathan Masters
A view of the House of Representatives Building and the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol (Ron Cogswell/Courtesy Flickr). A view of the House of Representatives Building and the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol (Ron Cogswell/Courtesy Flickr).

This week, for the first time in more than ninety years, both houses of Congress put out their annual budget proposals before the White House, an anomaly that reflects the topsy-turvy world of fiscal politics in Washington today. The Obama administration has delayed its fiscal blueprint for a few more weeks, which White House officials blame on the chronic budget brinksmanship over the last several months. Read more »

The Renewing America Interview: San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee on Pension Reform

by Jonathan Masters
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee speaks at his election day party in San Francisco, November 2011 (Robert Galbraith/Courtesy Reuters). San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee speaks at his election day party in San Francisco, November 2011 (Robert Galbraith/Courtesy Reuters).

When he took over as San Francisco’s interim mayor in January 2011, Ed Lee seemed like just the reluctant warrior the city needed to tackle its fiscal woes. He hadn’t run for office since his bid for high school senior class president, and had no aspirations to break the forty-year trend when his caretaker mayorship expired the following January. “I didn’t care about future office, I just wanted to do what was right for the city,” he told me in a recent phone conversation. Read more »