Sara Mead asks:
Am I the only person who found it odd and somewhat unseemly that the President of the United States used a portion of his State of the Union Address to essentially advertise a line of baby toys? Does this mean they qualify as being based in scientifically-based research? (Cuz I’m skeptical: more TK)
This actually seems like a promising endeavor. How to close the gap between the 16 percent of GDP that the GOP is willing to take in in taxes and the 25 percent of GDP that the country needs in spending? Mark Schmitt says you need higher taxes than that, but this is desperately inside the box thinking. Figure the government can run a deficit of, say, four percent of GDP safely on a sustainable basis. Then all you need is an additional 5 percent of GDP in product placements. It’s not just State of the Unions, it’s those backdrops for normal presidential speeches, it’s that seal on the podium, the wings of Air Force One, the sides of USPS trucks, everything. If public transportation authorities can sell advertising, why not the whole federal government?