Diane Rehm often has very good shows with guests who present clearly distinct political perspectives. However, when it comes to talking about the problem posed by the budget deficit, balance is thrown out the window. Yesterday, she had investment banker Robert Hormat present a diatribe about the need to eliminate the budget deficit. There were no alternative views presented. In past shows, investment bankers Pete Peterson and Robert Rubin have been given the same opportunity. David Walker, the Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office, was also given the opportunity to complain about the looming deficit disaster without any dissenting views. I suspect that there have been other solo appearances by deficit hawks, but these are the ones that I have happened to stumble on. As BTP regulars know, the basic story is that future deficits will be easily manageable if we fix our health care system. The projections for dangerous deficits in future years are driven entirely by projections that private sector health care costs will explode. If this explosion occurs, then the economy will be devastated regardless of what we do with public sector health programs. So, the real moral of the story is that we badly need to fix the health care system, not that we have a budget problem. Given the basic facts, it is understandable that the deficit hawks would want to appear unchallenged. But this is a bad use of public radio. If the deficit hawks don't think that they can defend their position in open debate, then they should be forced to sharpen their arguments until they gain more confidence, not given the opportunity to spew for an hour without any opposition.
--Dean Baker