Krugman on reducing long-term deficits: It’s not hard economically, but ‘politically impossible right now.’
Krugman on reducing long-term deficits: It’s not hard economically, but ‘politically impossible right now.’
Yesterday, the Center for American Progress and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities held a conference to discuss when and how to begin addressing the country’s long-term deficits. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman explained, “This is a really bad time to engage in fiscal retrenchment; it’s a bad time on almost every dimension.” But eventually deficits will have to be brought down to a sustainable level, which, according to Krugman, is fairly easy to do economically. The problem, he said during an interview with The Wonk Room, is that we have a political system in which you can’t talk about tax increases “without it being political suicide”:
If we can do health care reform…that really does limit the growth in health care cost, then what’s left is a problem that we can deal with with fairly moderate policy. Things that would be politically impossible right now, but economically aren’t hard at all. [...]
You would end up still with the U.S. having lower taxes than almost all other OECD countries. And you’d end up with our social programs enhanced, not reduced, because we’d have universal health care coverage and some other improvements in the social safety net, and we would be good for the foreseeable future. All of this hinges on being able to actually talk about tax increases, even modest ones, without it being political suicide. It requires that you be able to talk about spending health dollars wisely and not have people start screaming about death panels.
Watch it:
The Wonk Room has more.
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ot,
bernard goldberg rants against fox here.
some day’s you just don’t feel like drinking the kool-aid.
:)
October 1st, 2009 at 4:18 pmBut Paul, the death panels and the mantra ‘No New taxes!” are all that the Righties have left! You just can’t ASK them to actually Govern can you?
October 1st, 2009 at 4:19 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Gee golly whiz, you mean if we quit handing over 1/6 of our economy to a group that provides nothing more than more money for Wall Street to invest so they can both make more money without providing one thing that benefits anyone but them, we might be able to turn our economy around?
No wonder I picked this name.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:20 pmI want the Republikants to pony up all the money we pissed away in Iraq. That’ll help with balancing the budget they irresponsibly busted.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:21 pmGood luck with that.
The Taliban, I mean the GOP have overshadowed the debate with partisan rhetoric with their eye on the mid-term election.
Whatever it takes to get back in power, regardless if our economy fails.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:22 pmCut out all the social welfare programs, that will help the deficit.
Great idea. Lets just quit spending any American tax dollars on Americans and spend it all on wars and mercenaries and corporate bailouts.
CG, how can you see the keyboard to type with your head where it is?
October 1st, 2009 at 4:23 pmCut out all the ___________, that will help the deficit.
The blank can be filled with anything, and there will always be people to complain about it and against it. Sigh.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:23 pmShorter Krugman – as long as there are Republicans you’re fcked.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:24 pmAs long as we have a political party whose main objective is to see that Obama doesn’t succeed at anything, we’ll always be in an economic maze.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:25 pmconsevative@6, You remind me of Scrooge. “Isn’t there enough jails? Isn’t there enough Work Houses.” But somehow I don’t see you seeing the light in the end.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:26 pmSo basically, we’re screwed.
.
conservative guy says:
Cut out all the social welfare programs, that will help the deficit.
And we’ll end up as a third-world hellhole. Somalia doesn’t have a deficit either.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:26 pmMaybe he’s feeling guilty over helping to inspire Knoxville.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:27 pmWe made a start on reducing long term deficits in 2006. Kicked it up a bit in 2008. The only real solution to cutting long term deficits is never, ever letting Republicans be in charge of anything.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:27 pmCut the military budget in half! We’d still outspend the next largest spender (the EU) and that’d fix the deficit!
Boy, simplistic thinking is FUN! Thanks, conservatveguy!
P.S. Can you tell me again how women shouldn’t vote? That was a gem, too!
October 1st, 2009 at 4:33 pmCut out all the CORPORATE welfare programs, that will help the deficit.
Of course some people will have to suffer and live with a 3 car garage rather than that 5 car garage or maybe a cheaper ranch in Idaho instead of Jackson Hole,Wy, but that’s life.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:33 pmHood@14, That seems so logical and simplistic it could actually work! But I have no confidence in the American people. Anyone who mentions ‘New taxes’ will have a Bulls-Eye on their back. Thanks to Regan’s, “All Government is Evil!” mantra, many suburbanites are still brain-washed.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:36 pmOT:
Rep. Grayson will appear on the Ed Schultz show tonight. I tried to post that message to foxnation, who are still bashing the hell out of Grayson, but apparently they do not allow that kind of info.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:41 pmregulations on corps and tax the rich, that will help the deficit. It’s been proven that you don’t know squat and we do.
If you ever get anything right, please post us an example.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:42 pmBut but but WWII brought us out of the depression!
-War Monger Spendthrift III
October 1st, 2009 at 4:42 pmKrugman & Spitzer were great on Bill Maher’s show last Friday.
By the way, why is Spitzer still blackballed for seeing a prostitute while David ‘the diaper’ Vitter is posting a ‘family values’ picture on his re-election website?
Anyone who asks for lactating hookers while wearing a diaper is beyond sick…they’re PERVERTED!
October 1st, 2009 at 4:46 pmUntil we can reverse free trad and bring manufacturing back to the US, how on earth can we grow economically?
Wealth is what we manufacture and produce, not funds being transferred back and forth electronically.
Very worried about our future.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:49 pmPeople would have more money to spend on other items if they didnt have such high insurance costs. Just think, you could jump off that cliff, drive that motorcycle at 120mph, have unprotected sex, pick a fight with a sumo wrestler, do more drugs than Limbaugh, the mind reels
October 1st, 2009 at 4:50 pmAs usual, Krugman is dead on accurate.
I’d say he’d make one hell of a Treasury secretary, but he’d almost certainly be corrupted by/blacklisted from the job.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:51 pmWill ya look at that.
Get ready, I’m sure we’ll all be feeling the “trickle down” very soon.
BofA CEO: $53 million retirement score
NEW YORK (Fortune) — Ken Lewis doesn’t have a golden parachute, but he’s all set for a comfortable landing — unlike his long-suffering shareholders.
The Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) chief executive officer said Wednesday he’ll step aside at year-end after eight years at the helm. Based on the company’s most recent proxy statement, he will have $53 million in pension benefits waiting for him when he leaves.
That should give him about $3.5 million a year in pension payouts for the rest of his life — at a time when people who bought the stock when he took the reins in 2001 are underwater on their investments.
LINK
October 1st, 2009 at 4:58 pmOh noes. Those poor poor shareholders, such a horrible site to cast ones eyes upon, they should declare an wahhhmergency.
October 1st, 2009 at 5:05 pmConservative guy, of course you ignore that we can save much more money by cutting the military budget…
October 1st, 2009 at 5:05 pmbut then how would chickenhawks get off on war?
October 1st, 2009 at 5:06 pmAmericans and the media that informs us are to blame.
War we need is a War on the Deficit… maybe that’d wake some of us up.
October 1st, 2009 at 5:07 pmSave the long suffering shareholder who cares not about your health. Send money now.
October 1st, 2009 at 5:07 pmconservative guy
Good point. And DO NOT tackle the trillion-dollar bureaucratic nightmare that is the DoD. Increasing efficiency at the DoD in the eyes of our party qualifies for a leap in logic as “cutting defense spending.”
We should cut social spending, with no regard as to whether doing so would increase long-term expense to the government. De-regulation saved the government money, don’tchaknow?
October 1st, 2009 at 5:08 pmbut then how would chickenhawks get off on war?
Me thinks falafels..camouflaged ones.
October 1st, 2009 at 5:09 pmEnnuiDivine says:
As usual, Krugman is dead on accurate.
I’d say he’d make one hell of a Treasury secretary, but he’d almost certainly be corrupted by/blacklisted from the job.
He’d be falsely linked to SEIU, ACORN, NOW, and the Nazi Party by Minute 19 of his term.
October 1st, 2009 at 5:10 pmKrugman made the same comments on the Daily Show two days ago. In fact, he went further in his comments and blamed all of this on Bush and the Republicans. I would not be surprised if the conservatives/Republicans disown Krugman.
October 1st, 2009 at 5:15 pmWelcome to Repiggie America.
War. Don’t ask, don’t tell. No neo needed. If we can just bomb the crap out of everybody and sell our brand of bullet democracy the world will be perfect
October 1st, 2009 at 5:19 pm***
#13,
good point trollspotter,
in case people forgot
bernie’s name and book were
prominently mentioned.
:\
October 1st, 2009 at 5:19 pmWell, the obvious thing to do is talk about how the Republipimps are going to raise taxes when they get back into office. By that time, all the crappy stuff that Shrub did and some of the stuff he put off doing will have festered so long that there’ll be no choice but raising taxes.
October 1st, 2009 at 5:49 pmEven a dummy like conservative guy knows that
Democrat Bill Clinton is the only contemporary President to accomplish anything positive and meaningful vis a vis the deficit.
October 1st, 2009 at 5:50 pmSo what Krugman is really saying it’s time for the nation to start acting like grown-ups. See that we have a problem, and talk, like adults, about what we must do to fix it. Now if we can just get the children – er I mean the GOP – to act like adults maybe we can get somewhere.
October 1st, 2009 at 6:12 pmI think the $900B+ we spend every year on defense can be trimmed just a tad, don’t you?
October 1st, 2009 at 6:23 pmPD, a wise man once said there are two things in life that are certain…death and taxes.
The Repubs have spent the last 30 years sending taxes into private coffers. They have insured that the money the average American put into taxes benefited the wealthy. The Shrub provided a tighter focus by explaining that American taxes were for 1)war, 2) failed business.
Now we have a president and a few members of Congress who are saying WTF? We can ship pallets of money overseas and ignore half a million Americans dying? Three thousand die and we spend trillions with no return. Half a million die and we say, so what?
October 1st, 2009 at 6:33 pmControlling deficits is a responsible focus.
Raising taxes will be necessary.
In addition, spending cuts should be considered.
The military budget could be trimmed for starters.
October 1st, 2009 at 6:56 pmThe problem is history has shown that raising taxes just means more spending. It never goes to reducing deficits.
October 1st, 2009 at 7:34 pm#7,11,12,19,27 and 31, Dod is 21% of the federal budget. Safety net,i.e. welfare and such is 11%. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP are 20%. So over half the budget goes to social welfare programs.
October 1st, 2009 at 7:51 pmNanny State .. Welfare State …
October 1st, 2009 at 7:56 pmconservative guy. We spend just about half the world’s total on defense:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures
Check out the comparisons. Wouldn’t you agree that if we have to make cuts, there is a lot there that could be cut.
October 1st, 2009 at 7:57 pmlucid stuff there captain,
nice to see you apply your talents to one of the righties for a change.
October 1st, 2009 at 8:01 pm@44 – subtracting the VA part of the DoD budget, and all the black budget portions, and the costs of the retard president’s wars is very convenient, but scurrilously dishonest.
so i’m not surprised to see you try it.
you really should try boosting your own side up, rather than trying and failing to drag our side down.
very inefficient application of effort.
i’m sorry.
October 1st, 2009 at 8:05 pmThe deficit will be brought down mostly by no major increases in spending in the budget as a whole. That means programs will be consolidated in all departments. There are various user fees that will be increased, tax breaks repealed, and a few other artifices that increase revenue. We will have a budget that will grow a lot slower until the percentage of gross domestic product goes way down. One of the other ways to bring it down is through controlling health care costs for the entitlements programs, Medicare and Medicaid.
October 1st, 2009 at 8:38 pmUS shares plunge on recovery fears
NEW YORK – Wall Street shares tumbled Thursday as an unexpected jump in weekly jobless claims and a disappointing survey on manufacturing stoked concerns over economic recovery.
9 months. No change. Oops.
October 1st, 2009 at 8:47 pmDr Venture once again proves he is nothing but an ignorant punkass troll. How in the WORLD did you get so monumentally stupid?
October 1st, 2009 at 8:53 pmkwsventures says:
9 months. No change. Oops.
Not according to the CBO which says thanks to Obama and the stimulus millions of jobs were saved that would have been lost thanks to the latest Republican Recession. But don’t let facts discourage you from posting propaganda! Oops! ;)
October 1st, 2009 at 9:15 pmThank you for your sharing.!
October 7th, 2009 at 4:57 pm