budget deficits

During Part One of this series, I approached the end of my post with this paragraph.

Apart from the political opposition from the insurance companies that Medicare for All would have engendered, I think the main justification for abandoning Medicare for All and switching to more »

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During the run-up to passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), I wrote a number of posts (here, here, and here) assessing the ACA very negatively, and pointing out the shortcomings of the various versions of this bill, preceding its final passage. My focus was on contrasting varying versions with HR 676, the Conyers-Kucinich Medicare for All bill, in relation to its likely impact on fatalities, bankruptcies and divorces attributed to lack of health insurance coverage in the US.

At that time, about 47 million people were uninsured, and based on the rate of 1,000 fatalities per million established by the Wolper-Woolhandler-Himmelstein et al study of 2007-2009, I anticipated 47,000 fatalities in 2010. In addition, I predicted that

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In an October 12th Post entitled "Foreigners and the Burden of Debt," Paul Krugman made the following comment.

. . . we'd all agree that deficits make us poorer if they crowd out investment spending, which they would if the economy were near full employment, but won't if we're deeply depressed. All we have to do is realize that net foreign investment purchases minus sales of assets from and to foreigners is also a form of investment. Or to put it a bit more simply, sure, budget deficits can make us poorer as a nation if they lead to bigger trade deficits.

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On Tuesday House Republicans, led by Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan, will unveil a suicide pact in the form of a new budget that ignores the clear views of the majority of Americans – and which, if they embrace it almost unanimously, as they did last year’s similar Ryan Budget, will put a gun to the head of Republican attempts to keep control of the House – and then pull the trigger. more »

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Bernie Sanders may represent Vermont and have a New York accent, but right now he looks a little like a Texas Ranger. The motto for those Lone Star State lawmen - "One Riot, One Ranger" - comes from their legendary ability to face down a hostile crowd single-handed. Bernie just faced down something that may be even scarier that rioting cowboys in the Panhandle: a powerful Democratic chairman and his entire Committee.

Sen. Sanders isn't a Democrat (he's an independent socialist who caucuses with them), but he has a lot to teach progressives inside and out the party about how to stand up for what's right: Detach from party leaders, hang tough, and be prepared to walk away if you can't negotiate something reasonable. He's fighting for better policies - and ones that the public strongly supports. (Our American Majority project has more details.)

Let's hope they're paying attention across the country - and at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. more »

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Liberals don't like the prospect of the Bowles-Simpson plan becoming the starting point of deficit reduction talks, because it is too centrist to offer Democrats a strong bargaining hand. But if you look more closely, it's far worse than that. Bowles-Simpson is Ryan-lite.

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Mr. Chairman and Members of the Commission, I know my time is short, so I will limit my testimony to eight key points:

First, stabilizing the national debt is a means to an end, not an end in itself. more »

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Most discussions about addressing the country's budget deficit essentially leave out a $1.1 trillion slice of the federal government. more »

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February 3, 2010

EVERYTHING A MODERATE REPUBLICAN SHOULD BE

“‘Markets don’t just happen,’ (George) Romney declared with exasperation to the committee’s laissez-faire majority. Declaimed (Henry Cabot) Lodge: “‘No one in his right mind would today argue that there is no place for the federal government in the reawakening of America. more »

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