Getting Back to a Grand Bargain
Tom Friedman writes in The New York Times:
I’ve been arguing that the only antidote to this debilitating situation is a Grand Bargain between the two parties — one that cuts long-term entitlement spending and raises additional tax revenues to get our fiscal house in order, while making short-term investments in the sources of our strength (particularly new schools and community colleges, scientific research and roads, bandwidth, mass transit and airports) that can also cushion this recession. While President Obama has talked generally about such a Grand Bargain, he has never put a detailed offer before the American people and his own party faithful. It was a failure of leadership.
“After a painful and, for many, inexplicable delay, the administration is finally shifting from an ineffectual series of ad-hoc measures to a comprehensive program that targets key impediments to job creation,” commented Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of the world’s biggest bond manager, Pimco. “The emphasis is rightly on employment incentives, labor market reforms, infrastructure, and improving the functioning of the mortgage market.”
I’ve been arguing that the only antidote to this debilitating situation is a Grand Bargain between the two parties — one that cuts long-term entitlement spending and raises additional tax revenues to get our fiscal house in order, while making short-term investments in the sources of our strength (particularly new schools and community colleges, scientific research and roads, bandwidth, mass transit and airports) that can also cushion this recession. While President Obama has talked generally about such a Grand Bargain, he has never put a detailed offer before the American people and his own party faithful. It was a failure of leadership.
“After a painful and, for many, inexplicable delay, the administration is finally shifting from an ineffectual series of ad-hoc measures to a comprehensive program that targets key impediments to job creation,” commented Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of the world’s biggest bond manager, Pimco. “The emphasis is rightly on employment incentives, labor market reforms, infrastructure, and improving the functioning of the mortgage market.”
posted by Sid Cottingham | 9:40 AM
1 Comments:
Obama waited years before he finally got around to governing. Yes, what Obama said recently sounds credible,but it's way too late now for him and maybe the country to. Franklin Roosevelt came into office with a comprehensive plan that he had campaigned with. There was nothing obscure or half-hearted about the first 100 days of his first presidency. Everyone knew what he planned to do and realized that it was a radical collection or system of measures that had to be judged on the whole.
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