"Cash for Clunkers" Comes to a Screeching Halt
by: Erica Gordon

This past June, Congress added $1 billion to the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act for the ???Consumers Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009???. Though it had no business appearing in an emergency war funds bill, this ???Cash for Clunkers??? provision established a new one-year program administered through the Department of Transportation's (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that gave individuals with older, less fuel efficient cars a credit worth up to $4,500 towards the purchase of a new car that met certain fuel efficiency standards.

OMB Plays Three-Card Monte with Deficit Numbers
by: Roger Morse

As a rite of August when the nation's capital moves slowly, official Washington plays an interesting game of re-estimating the budget deficit. It is known as the Mid-Session Budget Review and both the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) take part. While both review the state of the federal budget and outlook for projected deficits over the next 10 years, they issue very different reports.

Salvage the Good from the Healthcare Debacle
by: Tom Schatz and Orson Swindle

The healthcare reform juggernaut, arguably the most radical attempt to remake the economy and the nation's healthcare infrastructure in history, was supposed to have flown through Congress before the August recess with nary a peep. Instead, as Americans have gotten wind of its alarming provisions and exorbitant costs, the plan appears to be fizzling fast in the summer heat.