For some time, liberals have felt that their messenger-in-chief has been AWOL. In the wake of President Barack Obama’s acquiescence to $38 billion in spending cuts, many targeted at vulnerable populations, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote of the president that “arguably, all he has left is the bully pulpit. But he isn’t even […]
Budget
Posted inEconomic Policy
Debating the Obama Budget
Adam Serwer, Monica Potts, and Jamelle Bouie discuss the Obama administration’s budget proposal, and the rash on anti-choice bills Republicans have introduced.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
TAP Talks to Bill Richardson
The New Mexico Gov. and Democratic presidential hopeful discusses balanced budgets, universal health care, and what it means to be “pro-growth.”
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Balanced Budget Trap
Absolute budget balance has become orthodoxy; a constitutional amendment to enforce it may pass Congress even if Democrats win the elections. But look at the costs.
Posted inAmerica and the World
Orbit of Influence: Spy Finance and the Black Budget
America’s huge budget for electronic reconnaissance might have come in for scrutiny after the Cold War. But the few in Congress who are supposed to watch over the world of spy finance are also big beneficiaries of it.
Posted inEconomic Policy
What I Really Say about Balancing the Budget
However you look at it, America is failing to prepare for its economic future. Each decade our savings performance worsens, and each decade so do our prospects for higher living standards. During the 1960s, U.S. net national savings averaged 8.1 percent of GDP. During the 1980s, that rate fell by half (to 3.9 percent). Thus […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Coming Budget Battle
T he passage of President Clinton’s budget, marked by its one-half trillion in deficit reduction, is already restoring respect for the administration. Clinton will be tempted to move on to other issues. The urgent need to make good on health care reform and the generally sour nature of budget discussions will add to this impulse. […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Escaping the Fiscal Trap
As the 1990s begin, peace and prosperity are in abundance but so are poverty, drugs, poor schools, contaminated air and water, deteriorating roads, and a host of other problems. Although few believe that such problems can be solved with money alone, money is surely needed. Its lack has become an excuse for doing nothing or […]
