tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post2210800229071519308..comments2024-03-28T10:49:14.510-05:00Comments on Horizons: Why President Obama wants a grand bargainNancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-4574053447897521402013-03-14T11:26:32.758-05:002013-03-14T11:26:32.758-05:00Truth, liberals should be able to walk and chew gu...Truth, liberals should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. PBO campaigned on getting our financial house in order as I recall. We just can't sell these prog. to taxpayers because it gives us warm fuzzies<br /><br />ebogan63Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-15722653783415436842013-03-14T11:16:08.344-05:002013-03-14T11:16:08.344-05:00If we're going to advocate for social programs...If we're going to advocate for social programs and pay for them with tax dollars, we need at the same time to make sure that we are not wasting those dollars. Wasted money is money taken from someone who could use it, or very possibly from another, worthwhile program. We have to press for administrative efficiency while at the same time opposing a reduction of actual benefits.Billhttp://freeandeasywandering.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-14898723693637871402013-03-14T10:57:27.819-05:002013-03-14T10:57:27.819-05:00"One of the things I think a lot on the left ..."One of the things I think a lot on the left of center miss with the President's proposals is that I don't recall an instance where he sought to reduce tangible benefits to actual people as a means to cut costs."<br /><br />Yet we still have those 'progressives' screeching as if PBO is gonna cut a 'grand bargain' that does the very thing he has never advocated, with some flat out lying about his stances.<br /><br />ebogan63Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-42267096998514484622013-03-14T10:23:37.430-05:002013-03-14T10:23:37.430-05:00This is a great piece, above all because the more ...This is a great piece, above all because the more that people discuss our fiscal picture in terms of a single problem, that of health care costs, rather than a general crisis or, worse, of numerous crises all but one of which are fictional, the better off we are.<br /><br />One of the things I think a lot on the left of center miss with the President's proposals is that I don't recall an instance where he sought to reduce tangible benefits to actual people as a means to cut costs. He always proposes improvements to efficiency. He loves incentivizing things, and while personally--I have many flaws as a person, but lacking a strong work ethic isn't one of them--such proposals chafe my aesthetic, I know that incentives, well-structured, can both produce better results than directives, without producing push-back.<br /><br />I took one college class, a history class, in which the professor, a flawed liberal, but a liberal to be sure, gave one lecture about debt. The historical topic was the rivalry between Britain and France, and he chalked up British geopolitical superiority to the creation and solidity of the British national debt. Hardly an original idea but a good one. The point he made is that modern states float debt. National debt is NORMAL in the modern world. It is not the same as personal debt.<br /><br />I say this, because in all my education, which would be considered a fairly good one, I got, as a non-econ major, only one sober discussion of the meaning of national debt in a single history class, and that a general survey. I could easily have, hung over to hell, missed that lecture and spent the rest of my days in ignorance.<br /><br />We very simply, in this country, do not understand the fiscal underpinnings of how any modern state operates and must operate. So, when people, gunning to dismantle social programs and so buttress the oligarchy, cry "debt!" people in general make the connection to the debt they know: their own. The connection, however, is false. Personal debt and national debt, in terms of how they function and what they mean, are at best distant cousins rather than fraternal twins.Billhttp://freeandeasywandering.com/noreply@blogger.com