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David Leonhardt on making tough decisions to fix the economy
People watch U.S. President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech.
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In last night's State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama laid out his plans to keep the state of the union strong. He also said, that "our work must begin by making some basic decisions about our budget, decisions that will have a huge impact on the strength of our recovery."
New York Times Washington Bureau Chief David Leonhardt has a new e-book out about that very thing, it’s called "Here’s the Deal" -- and it’s about the decisions and choices, some of them tough, that we have to make with respect to our debt and national deficit.
He says in part that our actions make it so that "we are pro deficit. We say we're not, we say the deficit is a terrible thing but then you come back to us and you ask us, are we willing to pay higher taxes? No. Are we willing to accept fewer Medicare and Social Security benefits? No. Do we want to make big cuts to the military? Mostly no. And that's really the deficit."
He says the answer to reducing the deficit and getting what we want is economic growth. And the federal government has to jump in and do things that the private sector won't do. It should be responsible for what amounts to basic research and innovation: "The Internet, radar, penicillin, the jet engine, radio all these things started as a government program. And they started because this really early stage stuff isn't profitable and you need someone other than the private sector to do it."
Leonhardt believes that despite the political divide in this country, we have the capability to get things right. He believes that America comes into the 21st century economy with more advantages than any other country.
It's hard to know where to begin when an argument is framed in terms of "To cut or not to cut," and "To tax or not to tax." First of all. there is no Left in America. Let's just clear that up right at the start. The center is far to the left of either Congress or Barack Obama. A left-wing solution would be to nationalize ExxonMobile in the interest of national security and reduce gas prices by half, as a means by which we might both stumulate the economy and fund new industries that are wholly public, which would be speicifially designed to compete directly with private industry. Fiscal austerity is no solution, as we might have already learned from Europe, but pumping government money into the same failed crony capitalist system that brought on the '08 financial collapse is no good alternative, either. Meanwhile, as everyone argues about what Congress should do regarding fiscal policy, the Fed is feeding the greed of Wall Street to the tune of $85 billion a month, diluting our currency and effectively creating (rationalzing) more debt through the back door of monetary policy--debt that should be written OFF (not down---OFF). The real debt threat we should be talking about is the one that tops a quadrillion dollars in the global derivatives market. It's important to keep people distracted in the face of a number like this, however.
how about charging citizens for services they receive from the government? if the citizens do not want to pay for the services, do not provide the services to them. don't make them pay, don't make them receive public services.
food markets work because they charge customers for the food they receive
automobile dealerships work because they charge customers for the cars they receive
shoe stores work because they charge customers for the shoes they recieve
and so on
if the government charged citizens for the services citizens received, there would be no need to increase taxes, there would be no deficit to pay down. this is the answer. an awesome solution
Leonhardt writes for liberals and low-information voters. Entitlement programs are the big drivers of government spending but nobody on the left wants to do anything about it...and nobody in the media wants to point out that Dems don't want to do anything about it.
The funny thing about Leonhardt is he never mentions what businessmen say government can do to spur economic growth. Funding more research is way down the list.
Oh my god I came up to a conclusion that our government should start with making basic decisions regarding the budget and Obama came to this thought just now? How is this possible that this man is still our President? Who cares about tough decisions, we need results, we can survive any decisions until they do not influence our right too much (I am mostly talking about high prices, unaffordable accommodation and a vast of job cuts). We have been through economical hell during past 5 years, so we will be alright. Just start making what is the best for the country and not for rich people pockets. Thanx for the news.
Alicia from https://paydayloansat.com/ online company
Leonhardt again. His claim that we made cuts in 2011 is laughable. Only in DC is a reduction in the growth of spending a cut, and that is primarily what was agreed upon. On the other hand the taxes that Obama raised this year and for Obamacare are quite real with no funny accounting gimmicks for those forced to pay them.
He is right that the government has a role to play in funding basic research. What he neglects to mention is that that research money amounts to rounding errors in the federal budget. Fully two thirds of the federal budget is mandatory spending (read transfer payments or entitlement spending). Further most of the examples he cites were outgrowths of military spending --or were areas where we piggy-backed heavily on the British-- which is an area that liberals of his ilk abhor. Oh, and radio? Seriously?
