If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The GOP can try to repackage their party by reaching out to all demographics. But, for many Americans, the GOP is just the same old party.
Yet another report is out showing how the trade deficit is costing us millions of jobs and hurting our economy. This is a real problem that is hurting people, hurting communities, hurting our tax base and hurting our ability to make a living in the future.
Republicans argue that our revenue discussion should be over. They'll say that we already agreed to raise tax rates a little bit on the rich, so now we should only be cutting spending. But they ignore that America gives away through the tax code just as much money as it collects.
I've discovered the secret to deficit reduction and bipartisan fiscal reform. It's a policy trick that has been lost, but decades ago was created by Congress to avoid constant fiscal crises like those we face today.
President Obama will give his State of the Union speech on Tuesday evening. And while the state of our economy may be improving and the state of our standing in the world strong, if he is truly honest he should admit that the state of our union is not where it should be.
Steering the Republican Party away from its accustomed negativism is an ancient endeavor. Henry Simons, a founder of the ardently free enterprise Chicago School, tried unsuccessfully to do so in the 1930s.
We're still having the wrong discussion. It shouldn't be how to cut the budget deficit. It should be how to bring back good jobs and economic growth. Deficit hawks and government-haters are still framing the debate. That bodes ill for all of us.
Isn't $3 trillion already on their books too much? Not really, when you look at what even Fed Chairman Bernanke's predecessor, wily Alan Greenspan (master of do what I say, not what I do), was able to engineer during his almost 20-year tenure. How did he do it?
Rising demand for German goods, an improving business climate and stability in Spanish housing should have given markets cause for celebration. However, after the substantial rally we've seen, and the headwinds yet to be tackled within the region, caution has crept back into markets.
For those who believe we can still recover from our fiscal and economic death spiral, the time for hard choices has come. I'm talking to you, staunch Republican defenders of the military-industrial complex.
Seemingly, President Obama has moved off the deficit-hawk kick that marked his posture in 2010 when he appointed the Bowles-Simpson Commission, and 2011 when he agreed to a budget deal with massive cuts and automatic triggers adding up to about $4 trillion in deficit cuts over a decade. Seemingly, too, the corporate-led "Fix the Debt Campaign" -- millionaires and billionaires telling the rest of America to tighten its belt for the greater good -- isn't getting a great deal of traction. But despite the sheer unreality of their claims, the austerity lobby keeps winning by defining the terms of debate. Nearly everyone, right, center and left, is arguing about the economic recovery in terms of what the debt-to-GDP ratio should be in 2023. That is the wrong question. The right question is: how do we get a stronger recovery going now?
Once again, it is up to President Obama to take the lead and make the American public aware of all this. Our nation is in a hopeful but tricky place right now and which way we go will depend as much on our confidence in ourselves as in any statistics.
A three-month downturn is a caution, not a catastrophe. But Washington seems too wrapped in its deficit delusions to pay attention to the flashing yellow lights. Here's a cautionary guide.
The line of argument used consistently by fact checkers is that the Social Security is currently taking in less in revenue than it is paying out in benefits. This deficit must be financed by borrowing. Here is what the fact checkers have overlooked.
The public already prioritizes job creation over deficit reduction by large margins. In a debate with more facts and less noise, they'd lean even more in this direction. The Peterson's Fiscal Confidence Index, alas, is just more noise.
Debt remains, as it long has been, the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of capitalism. For a small minority, it's a blessing; for others a curse.
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