Obama Talks to EconomistMom About His Deficit-Reduction Plan
July 10th, 2008 . by economistmom…Well, sort of. I just got back from his speech and town hall meeting in Fairfax, VA, on the topic of women and economic security.
I brought daughter #2, the daughter of “allowance trust fund” fame:
We were sitting pretty far away; here’s the view from my seat:
…but he did speak about the deficit, and I was listening.
He didn’t speak that much about it during the speech, which laid out lots of new spending with just quick mention that every new initiative is paid for under his plan (the pay-go relative to policy baseline position)…
And I was afraid it wouldn’t come up in the Q and A, until he took the very last question, and an African American woman introduced herself as someone who had grown up in southeast DC and yet had overcome her obstacles to get into Georgetown University. Her question surprised me–she said, “My question is about national security. What are we going to do about the federal debt?” (And my daughter smiled at me, and inside I was saying “hooray, hooray” and was wondering if this woman had somehow seen the I.O.U.S.A. movie.)
Obama responded that the debt was indeed a mess of a problem and that George W. Bush had managed to almost double the debt and that it was obvious the Bush Administration has failed in the fiscal stewardship department. He mentioned that the deficit this year was over $400 billion (and I heard people gasp).
But then he said he had to be honest with everyone–that under an Obama Administration, the deficit probably wouldn’t be eliminated in a first term, and probably not even by the end of a second term. (He contrasted this honesty with what Senator McCain is claiming he can do by cutting earmarks.) The crowd grew very quiet. My daughter remarked to me that the crowd’s disappointment seemed palpable, and I agreed.
But then Senator Obama tried to cheer us up, reiterating his commitment to being fiscally responsible, using the old saying that the first thing one ought to do when in a hole is stop digging. He listed four ways an Obama Administration would achieve deficit reduction:
- End the war.
- Let the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire.
- Cut waste, fraud, and abuse (improve efficiency in how government operates).
- Engage in major reform of our health care system.
My quick analysis of this list? Senator Obama is right that even with this list of good, fiscally-responsible things to do, it’s still not realistic to expect this to add up to a shrinking budget deficit–certainly not a disappearing one. 1 is hard to do quickly, and the savings are already implicit in the (current-law, CBO) baseline. 2 is not so hard, but again, the savings are already in the baseline. 3 should be easy, but is peanuts. And 4 is super hard but of course is the big Kahuna, with huge potential to improve the long-term outlook, so we’ve got to try really hard to land on the brighter side of the uncertain forecast range.
I guess I should try to get myself to a McCain town hall meeting next, to be fair…
How does “health care reform’ offer an opportunity for deficit reduction? At least as any Democrat defines it, it usually means extending health insurance to more people. That sounds like a recipe for larger deficits.
Hello EconomistMom!
Google Alerts just sent me your site…thanks for the mention of IOUSA…I’m the editor of the film. We’ll be premiering nationwide August 21st, and we’re excited that the candidates are starting to respond to the issue!
Tell your friends and neighbors!
Best,
Doug Blush
Editor, IOUSA
Sullivan
two ways:
reducing the cost of medical care to those the government is already paying for.
teaching the people that they ultimately pay for their own health care anyway. it’s a lot cheaper to do it through a government supervised single payer.
‘it’s a lot cheaper to do it through a government supervised single payer.’
Think so?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/12/AR2008061203915.html
‘All it took to bilk the federal government out of $105 million was a laptop computer.
‘From her Mediterranean-style townhouse, a high school dropout named Rita Campos Ramirez orchestrated what prosecutors call the largest health-care fraud by one person. Over nearly four years, she electronically submitted more than 140,000 Medicare claims for unnecessary equipment and services. She used the proceeds to finance big-ticket purchases, including two condominiums and a Mercedes-Benz.
‘Health-care experts say the simplicity of Campos Ramirez’s scheme underscores the scope of the growing fraud problem and the need to devote more resources to theft prevention. Law enforcement authorities estimate that health-care fraud costs taxpayers more than $60 billion each year.
‘A critical aspect of the problem is that Medicare, the health program for the elderly and the disabled, automatically pays the vast majority of the bills it receives from companies that possess federally issued supplier numbers. Computer and audit systems now in place to detect problems generally focus on overbilling and unorthodox medical treatment rather than fraud, scholars say.’
sullivan
yeah, i know. running the united states of america is exactly the same as managing your household budget. i know, because the republicans tell me so.
i’d try to say something about one example, or even many examples of fraud don’t make a case against the general proposition that single payer is cheaper for the country than the present system. but if you were capable of understanding that, i wouldn’t have to explain it.
High quality argument, coberly. I produce actual examples of an estimated $60 billion in billing fraud, and you respond by saying you could answer that, but….
I guess we just have to trust you. Again.
no patrick. i said “one example of fraud, or even many” is not an argument that the plan is not cheaper for the country as a whole.
this is pretty basic logic. which is probably where you got lost.
you could run around the beach all day and bring me back examples of wet sand, but it wouldn’t prove that the beach doesnt’t keep the sea at bay, as it were.
PRS is a Republican troll. Isn’t it ironic that he succeeded in showing why Republicans are wholly incompetant.. on a thread discussing Obama’s plans? Of course he can’t comment on the substance of Obama’s plan - he knows Obama’s plan is correct.
Obama stated 4 areas he’ll start at the 30,000-foot level to study to attack the deficit and the debt. Unless PRS believes national health care cost is not a problem, there is no issue with that statement.
“All Democrats” don’t believe anything other than the fact that they aren’t Republicans. From the very first post on this thread, he’s got you spinning.