This is the title of a very good oped from Gail Collins. I would argue that among Gail’s many excellent statements, this one hits at the core of why this White House wants to adopt its proposal: In any event, doing well under privatization is relative. Congress’s budget agency analyzed the privatized plan that is […]
David Altig co-authored Simulating Fundamental Tax Reform in the United States (AER June 2001), which is a very good paper. So I decided to make his blog a must read. Alas, two posts have been most disappointing. This one seemingly endorses some Donald Luskin claim that the middle class got a large tax break from […]
Let me begin by thanking President Bush for enlisting the efforts of his father and Bill Clinton in encouraging more Americans to donate to tsunami relief efforts. This can do spirit stands in sharp contrast to the pettiness of Tucker Carlson, quoted and properly criticized by Juan Cole: CARLSON: Well, I got the sense from […]
On a lighter note, the country is much more Blue than I thought. As it turns out, however, I am Red. Via Ben Muse. AB
Matt Y. explains the trust fund simply enough that anyone can understand: Social Security, similarly, has been saving money for the past 20 years and will continue to do so for the next 14. At that point, it will slowly begin paying down its savings. This is not a Day of Reckoning for Social Security. […]
Two great pictures: “Off-budget” means social security — it’s currently running a surplus of around 1.5% of GDP or over $150 billion/year. Hardly a crisis, that. The general fund, however, is running a deficit in the neighborhood of 5% of GDP. That’s about $600b for 2004 (based on these somewhat dated numbers.) Now that sounds […]
I have two New Year’s resolutions: (1) try even harder to find ways to elicit bipartisan support for fiscal responsibility; and (2) Brad Setser’s blog more often. For those grown-up Republicans who wish to support (1), read this from Brad: Take out social security, which takes in more revenue than it spends, and the budget […]
Josh Marshall on SSRI: … The United States has a bit over $7 trillion in accumulated national debt … After 1980 we started borrowing money big-time to finance our deficits — in large part because of tax cuts on high-income earners. However you want to slice it, we started spending substantially more than we were […]
Senator Says Lifetime Terror Detentions ‘Bad Idea’: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A reported U.S. plan to keep some suspected terrorists imprisoned for a lifetime even if the government lacks evidence to charge them in courts was swiftly condemned on Sunday as a “bad idea” by a leading Republican senator. The Pentagon and the CIA have asked […]
At first, the White House thought $15 million was all we could do. Next, they reacted to terms like stingy or miserly as if Bush was running for reelection – but at least the $15 million became $35 million. But the number of dead already is 40 times that of 9/11 and the number of […]