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On our persistent deficits there's enough blame for everyone. This article tells the story clearly.
The ‘progressives’ are to blame, too, for mismanaging our government
The Republicans-as-villains story is a half-truth.
What has been missing in Washington for the past two or three decades is a serious debate about the role of the federal government. What programs are effective and justified? Who deserves government benefits, and how much? The issue is not whether we’ll have big government or small government. To flip what President Bill Clinton once said: The era of small government is over. Actually, it was over many decades ago. The real issue is whether we’ll have effective big government or mismanaged big government.
So far, mismanaged is winning. As I have written countless times, the semi-automatic expansion of programs for the elderly (mainly Social Security, Medicare and long-term care under Medicaid) is slowly crowding out many other government programs, from defense to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The paradoxical result is that government spending will grow larger even while it grows less effective.
The conventional wisdom in Washington is that the Republicans are responsible for this mess. Their fixation with sizable tax cuts leaves government perpetually dependent on massive borrowing. There is much truth to this. We cannot afford large tax cuts. Just the opposite: We need tax increases, slowly introduced, to cover government’s existing deficit, roughly $700 billion in the current fiscal year.
Still, the Republicans-as-villains story is a half-truth. The other half is the refusal of Democrats — “liberals” and “progressives” — to cut almost any Social Security and Medicare benefits. They’re essentially off-limits, even though life expectancy has increased and many elderly are well-off. Plausible cuts need not be draconian. Extending the eligibility age for full Social Security benefits by a year would reduce spending by 7 percent. . . .
The ‘progressives’ are to blame, too, for mismanaging our government
The Republicans-as-villains story is a half-truth.
What has been missing in Washington for the past two or three decades is a serious debate about the role of the federal government. What programs are effective and justified? Who deserves government benefits, and how much? The issue is not whether we’ll have big government or small government. To flip what President Bill Clinton once said: The era of small government is over. Actually, it was over many decades ago. The real issue is whether we’ll have effective big government or mismanaged big government.
So far, mismanaged is winning. As I have written countless times, the semi-automatic expansion of programs for the elderly (mainly Social Security, Medicare and long-term care under Medicaid) is slowly crowding out many other government programs, from defense to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The paradoxical result is that government spending will grow larger even while it grows less effective.
The conventional wisdom in Washington is that the Republicans are responsible for this mess. Their fixation with sizable tax cuts leaves government perpetually dependent on massive borrowing. There is much truth to this. We cannot afford large tax cuts. Just the opposite: We need tax increases, slowly introduced, to cover government’s existing deficit, roughly $700 billion in the current fiscal year.
Still, the Republicans-as-villains story is a half-truth. The other half is the refusal of Democrats — “liberals” and “progressives” — to cut almost any Social Security and Medicare benefits. They’re essentially off-limits, even though life expectancy has increased and many elderly are well-off. Plausible cuts need not be draconian. Extending the eligibility age for full Social Security benefits by a year would reduce spending by 7 percent. . . .
