Sunroom Desk » Deficit

Under the Paperweight, October 11-17, 2009

Editor — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:04:18 +0000

Why are we doing this? was the big question in this editor’s mind while reviewing health care reform news under the Sunroom Desk Paperweight this past week. Every citizen should be asking their representatives in Congress that question, and demanding a clear answer.

Shell games in the Senate for ObamaCare describes how a separate bill will undo major cost reductions in the Baucus bill, even though the two bills weren’t considered together by the Congressional Budget Office when it evaluated implications for the deficit.

Why Democrats’ Health Care Overhaul May Die points out that universal coverage is so expensive that it can’t happen without unpopular new taxes.

Critical Condition, from the National Review Online says:

The problem with Obamacare is not insufficient governmental force; the problem is that the Democrats are pursuing the wrong goal. They are desperate to enact something they can call “universal coverage” without any coherent plan to slow the pace of rising costs. In that context, a new entitlement for subsidized insurance is exceedingly expensive, which is why the sponsors try to hide some of the costs behind mandates, hidden taxes, compulsion, and insurance regulation. However, as they are now finding out, there’s no free lunch here. Someone has to pay for it all. It’s just a question of who and how much.

Both We’re Going to Let You Die, in the Wall Street Journal, and The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, in Pajamas Media discuss Robert Reich’s 2007 speech to UC Berkeley students explaining why politicians have trouble telling the truth about health care reform – you can’t have something for nothing.

A follow up question to that conclusion: is what we are getting better than what we have now?

Under the Paperweight, July 5-11, 2009

Editor — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:06:48 +0000

California’s debt problem is worsening as it issues IOUs, which actually are state bonds with 3.75% APR interest. Articles under the Paperweight last week discussed which groups are getting IOUs and which are still getting straight checks from the state, which banks won’t accept IOUs after July 10 and the secondary market developing for them, which state vendors (some of which are being paid with IOUs) are being asked to reduce their rates for California, what problems the U.S. government will only postpone if it steps in, and what the implications of this brinksmanship over the budget are for the federal government’s deficit politics.

No State Budget Yet: The Message for Glendale?

Editor — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:10:00 +0000

Thank you to legislators who voted against the latest California 2009 budget proposal. Raising sales taxes will further lower consumption. Raising car registration fees will reduce new car sales and put further pressure on auto dealerships. Raising income taxes will encourage high income earners to flee the state in higher numbers. None of this will be helpful in plugging the huge budget deficit. Whatever is finally decided in Sacramento and Washington, Glendale needs to chart its own course through troubled times.

The federal stimulus bill is not going to revive our local or state economy. It won’t solve our city’s infrastructure problems. Glendale and other California cities need to look to themselves, to make do, to cut back, and to get creative.