Budget Hearing on Economic Outlook

The Budget Committee is currently holding a hearing, "The Near-Term Outlook for the U.S. Economy." Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, will testify.

Watch the hearing live via committee webcast or on C Span 2.

Read Bernanke's testimony as prepared (pdf) >>

Rep. Chet Edwards (TX-17) questions Bernanke on making the current tax cuts permanent:

Bernanke: "You know our discussion today is about short term stimulus, and I think from the point of view of getting stimulus in the next few months, I would suggest that just in terms of the next few months, I think that the evidence suggests that measures that involve putting money in hands of households and firms that will spend it in the near term would be more effective. And again, I'm not taking a view one way or the other on the desirability of those long term tax cuts being made permanent, but I think they're part of a set of very important long term issues on fiscal structure and fiscal stability that this committee and Congress needs to have."