News
CNN: Money | Why government cuts won't hurt growth
S&P has a point: We need to cut more spending. Debunking the Keynesian argument that the forthcoming spending cuts will be a job and growth killer.
CNN | With downgrade, now can we get serious about debt?
Maybe out of this miserable moment we can refocus on how to "go big," and come up with reforms that are not only big enough to actually fix the problem, but expand the discussion to solve related problems as well. First, we will have to do much more to get our debt under control. Think $4 trillion to $5 trillion.
Fox News | Big Mandate, Low Expectations Greet 'Super Committee' on Debt Reduction
Members haven't been named yet, but appointees to the new congressional "super committee"" tasked with achieving at least $1.2 trillion in debt reduction by the end of the year will find their colleagues hopeful but not necessarily optimistic about the outcome.
Politico | A new chance to get budget right
This long-term structural imbalance is the biggest threat to our nation’s future — and the only way to confront it is to restrain entitlement growth while adding revenue. Two things Congress has been loath to do.
Econ Comments
Washington Post | The welfare state wins this budget war
Liberals got two of three. They failed on taxes, the Republicans’ litmus test. But they prevailed elsewhere. Social Security, Medicare and most benefits (food stamps, Medicaid) for the poor, regardless of age, were put off-limits.
Daily Caller | More government spending won’t fix sluggish economy
There he goes again. Out on the campaign trail, President Obama is proposing more federal spending as his answer to sluggish growth and jobs. That won’t do it, Mr. President.
Washington Times | MALPASS: Obama downgrade hurts
Act now to lessen impact before real pain starts.
Blogs
Forbes | The Wolf and The Lamb Deficit Plan
Did anyone really think that this Congress was capable of a real solution to the debt and deficit crisis? Certainly Standard & Poors didn’t think so.
Reports
Mercatus | Type the Title You Want People to See
The United States is not the first nation to wrestle with large and unsustainable national debt. Economists have identified a number of other instances in which wealthy, industrialized nations have taken on dangerous levels of national debt and have attempted reform.
Mercatus | Deficits, Debt, and Debasement
In President Barack Obama's first two years in office, it soared to $1.4 trillion in 2009 and $1.29 trillion in 2010. Deficits are on track to remain at unprecedented levels in 2011, and President Obama's promise to halve the deficit by 2012 turned out to be the same "politics as usual" that he denounced during his campaign.
