Experts Propose ‘Grand Bargain’ to Solve US Economic, Social Challenges

As the national debt and deficit loom large, Biden economists and policymakers spoke at an event assessing recommendations in a recent report.

Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein speaks at a press briefing at the White House on July 18, 2022. Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

WASHINGTON—A “Grand Bargain” from major center-left and center-right think tanks that proposed common-ground solutions to the country’s pressing issues was met with approval but some criticism from Biden economic advisers who reviewed it at an event on Dec. 3.

Jared Bernstein, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, sat alongside scholars from that center-left think tank and from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a center-right think tank that collaborated with Brookings and other groups on a July report aimed at finding a cross-partisan settlement on some of the United States’ most intractable economic and social challenges.