On “Winning the Future”
March 20, 2011
A writer at National Review Online has more on America’s looming debt crisis, and a warning that Washington politicians may have to choose between balanced budgets in the near term and the structural reforms needed to make America solvent in the long term. Normally, I wouldn’t bet on politicians’ choosing the common good in the future over what makes them look good in the present, but America isn’t dead yet; so here’s hoping.
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March 21, 2011 at 12:18 AM
Are you saying the needed structural reforms will require running a deficit in the short term?
March 21, 2011 at 10:48 AM
Did you read the piece? (Remember when you thought it was so important to read a thing before commenting on it?)
My short answer is No: There are already huge deficits in the short term, for other reasons. According to Holtz-Eakin, long-term solutions might “yield little in the near term” in savings. I think it’s implicit in his analysis that Congress and the American people only have so much attention and will to spend on balancing the budget, and it’s important that the focus be on the long term, not the short term, to the extent that one has to come at the expense of the other.
March 23, 2011 at 12:26 AM
I wasn’t commenting on the piece, I was asking you a question.
Please note question mark. (?)