Interesting Information on the National Debt
Though the attention to the accelerating (not just accumulating) national debt is not misplaced, non-partisan attention might be useful. My own problem with the attention is that Medicare and Social Security–as the despicable Lawrence Summers insists on doing–become the targets of the concern. That means that the real drivers of the deficit are ignored: the bloated, unaudited, pork-barrel military/security/industrial budget, the decline in corporate income taxes particularly for the largest corporations, and the movement away from producing real wealth and into a casino economy, just to name ones that come immediately to mind.
So I suggest you take time to watch “I.O.U.S.A” this weekend. Information from the email announcement follows: CNN/U.S. will air the broadcast premiere of the acclaimed documentary I.O.U.S.A. on on Saturday, January 10 at 2:00 p.m. EST and on Sunday, January 11 at 3:00 p.m. EST. Accompanying the documentary will be an unscripted panel discussion with policy leaders about various economic solutions currently under consideration. Panelists are: Pete Peterson, Chairman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former U.S. Commerce Secretary; Dave Walker, President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former U.S. Comptroller General; Alice Rivlin, noted economist and former Director of the Office of Management and Budget; and Bill Bradley, a Managing Director of Allen & Company and former U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate, in discussions about issues raised in the film and their ties to current economic events. You can watch a 30 second version of the movie at www.IOUSAtheMovie.com and get further information about the creators.
Posted: January 7th, 2009 under Best of the Blogs.
Comments: 4
Comments
Comment from Josh Hammond
Time: January 7, 2009, 3:36 pm
Sounds like they are rounding up the usual suspects. I thought Pete Peterson was dead. Meanwhile, Obama, without testing the waters and putting Pugs in the hot seat, has included more tax cuts for big corporations to sweeten the deal for their support, a move that comes too early in the process. There is a reason it is called budget negotiations.
Comment from Max
Time: January 7, 2009, 4:24 pm
Too many Americans spend too much time in an orgy of self congratulation. Japanese people have always admired and looked up to Americans. When I first came to Japan 35 years ago, an American lifestyle was considered to be an ideal, a goal impossible for Japanese to reach.
Yet it is gradually coming to light in Japan that for most Americans, they live at a third world level. Japanese news commentators on the TV news regularly shake their heads and wonder how Americans put up with such a low standard of living.
The admiration is changing to pity.
Yet no one can deny that America has the world’s most massive military, and some of the world’s richest people. But for the average American, the future only points down.
Comment from timr
Time: January 8, 2009, 9:39 am
Max, too true. The military industrial complex that Ike warned us about almost 50 years ago has grown so massive that I believe that it is running amuck. We are currently building new aircraft carriers-2 that I am aware of. Then I recently read that we are going to build 20 new subs. We mothballed many of the cold war boomers, altho some have been reconfigured into SEAL delivery vehicles.
The B2 cost over $1.2 Billion EACH! The new F-22 is running about $400 Million each, and the new F-35 is about $200 million.
Meanwhile, the BUFF (B-52) is still going strong at age 60.
We have by far the most bloated military in the world, but also one that doesn’t have enough bodies to fill all the positions-the current market meltdown should be very good news for the military, kind of an employer of last resort.
We depend to much on technology, while the last few wars we have fought shows that technology many times does not, in and of itself, win wars.
Meanwhile the last 8 years have managed to bring our military forces to the brink. The reorganization of the Army by rumsfeld has done little to make the Army better, instead they rely more on high tech, which breaks.
Shifting military functions to contractors has turned out to have been a very bad idea, but now that they are entrenched how does one get rid of them?
We have many problems, to many to be solved in 1 day, yet the MSM seems to think that Obama is already president.
Comment from Sasha
Time: January 11, 2009, 11:38 am
I couldn’t disagree more about IOUSA and the right wing deficit hawks. I have been meaning to write but didn’t have the time. Fortunately the brilliant and cogent Digby did it for me. You might read her piece before you swallow the shock-doctrine propaganda lock, stock, and barrel.
Write a comment