Fiscal Policy – When Alice Rivlin Speaks, Just Listen

Alice Rivlin teams with Michael O’Hanlon to write:

In 1992, with his squeaky voice and endless charts, Perot focused attention on the rising federal deficit. His warnings helped keep the major-party candidates from talking budgetary nonsense … Federal debt, which fell to 57 percent of gross domestic product during the Clinton administration, is back up to about 68 percent, the highest percentage since the 1950s. Interest on the federal debt tops $200 billion a year, so we have to move quickly to avoid losing ground. Moreover, deficits are increasingly being financed by other countries, making us increasingly vulnerable to their agendas. All the candidates claim that their initiatives would not make future deficits bigger, but many of these claims are shaky at best … With his bold tax cuts and increases in defense spending, John McCain looks likely to do the most fiscal damage, but the Democrats are not far behind.

I’m not about to endorse Ross Perot but Alice Rivlin certainly deserves a seat near the next President of the United States.