What It Takes To Solve The Us Government Deficit Problem

Right of Center America describes where America's federal budget and national debt are today and details how they can be brought under control. This book is not about ideological battles. It is not about the Right vs. Left. It does not rehash the same tired arguments about spending reductions versus tax increases. Instead it provides simple, detailed solutions to reduce the federal budget and national debt. These solutions involve both decreasing some and increasing other federal department's budgets and cutting some and increasing other taxes. Some recommendations you might have heard before, but most are new ideas, especially when dealing with America's biggest challenges.In addition to addressing the federal budget and national debt, Right of Center America also solves the biggest challenges facing America.1) An energy plan that drastically reduces America's dependency on foreign oil AND idles all coal, petroleum, and gas fueled power plants over the next 45 years.2) An education plan ensures EVERY American has access to the best possible education.3) Health Care reform that actually decreases the COST of Health Care by more than 20 percent and provides insurance coverage for those Americans that cannot afford it.4) Economic and tax policy that will spur long-term investment in AMERICAN companies.5) Entitlement reform that GUARANTEES safety-net programs, Social Security, and Medicare benefits.6) A reigning in of defense and foreign policy spending.7) Common sense immigration reform with a secure border and work-to-citizenship visas.8) Election and judicial reform that increase government transparency and turnover.Product Description:How can the U.S. decrease its national debt by 60 percent over the next twenty years while solving the most pressing challenges of today? Many books explain the problems presented by the current U.S. fiscal federal budget crisis, but none provide a comprehensive proposal to correct it. Right of Center America not only details the federal budget, it provides a specific plan that eliminates the federal deficit and reduces the national debt. The book details a strategy of how federal programs should be evaluated and the resulting analysis of this review.Right of Center America shows what America can do when it is fiscally responsible. Detailed, innovative plans are presented that would fix America's biggest challenges. Entitlements are made solvent. Health care costs are reduced and insurance coverage is provided for the poor. Every American is guaranteed the best public education by empowering both the teacher and the parent. Illegal immigration is curtailed. An energy plan is detailed that drastically reduces the use of petroleum and coal over the next 30 years. A fiscally responsible foreign policy is introduced. Common sense economic, tax, election, and judicial reforms are presented.These challenges are solved while reducing the deficit and without massive tax increases. Nowhere else will you find such creative, simple, and feasible solutions. Right of Center America is written for those Americans who are not ideologically tied to a political party. This book focuses on fiscal matters and does not delve into social issues. This biggest problems facing America today, the problems that will cripple the next generation of Americans, are fiscal issues.With a national debt exceeding $13 trillion, an annual federal budget deficit close to $500 billion, and interest payments approaching $500 billion per year, this book is a must read.If you only read one chapter of my book, please read chapter seven. I provide detailed examples on how to reduce the cost of health care by a conservative 21% without the need for federally managed health care system. In fact, my plan would actually result in a reduction of health care costs by more than a third, but I only use worst-case scenarios in my figures. More importantly, I believe this could be a bipartisan plan that both parties could support.

This paper investigates the short-term effects of fiscal consolidation on economic activity in OECD economies. We examine the historical record, including Budget Speeches and IMFdocuments, to identify changes in fiscal policy motivated by a desire to reduce the budget deficit and not by responding to prospective economic conditions. Using this new dataset, our estimates suggest fiscal consolidation has contractionary effects on private domestic demand and GDP. By contrast, estimates based on conventional measures of the fiscal policy stance used in the literature support the expansionary fiscal contractions hypothesis but appear to be biased toward overstating expansionary effects.

T he generational wars are about to begin: competing for entitlements, wrestling over taxes, dancing around the deficit. Today’s children and grandchildren are tomorrow’s taxpayers and social fabric. The authors of Payment Due contend that our current policies of federal overspending are setting those children up for economic disaster. Former Representative Tim Penny (D-MN) knows how volatile the politics of the situation are; he retired because he couldn’t locate in Congress at large the institutional will (or stomach) to deal with the issues squarely. Political scientist Steven Schier understands the way in which the politics work against economics to solve the problem. Together, they take us inside the Capitol corridors to show us the lobbying, arm-twisting, and pork barrel politicking that goes on to derail policies designed to reduce the federal deficit. We get to play the “Washington Monument game” along with the worst of the offenders and to see firsthand how three schools of deficit thought—the wolves, pussycats, and termites—approach the prospect of cutting back federal outlays and weaning the great middle class from its own welfare dependency. A hallmark of the book is its three-tiered set of long-term entitlement reform proposals, complete with careful documentation of the contribution each recommended item makes toward reducing the federal deficit (or at least slowing its increase). Along with suggested short-term plans, these proposals give students the opportunity to try to solve both short- and long-term problems. Students will appreciate the timeliness and relevance of the book’s argument to their generation’s future plight, and all readers will benefit from the clear presentation of complex economic concepts and arguments essential to understanding the federal deficit debate—and to confronting the political, social, and moral payments now coming due.

A New York Times Bestseller The leading thinker and most visible public advocate of modern monetary theory -- the freshest and most important idea about economics in decades -- delivers a radically different, bold, new understanding for how to build a just and prosperous society. Stephanie Kelton's brilliant exploration of modern monetary theory (MMT) dramatically changes our understanding of how we can best deal with crucial issues ranging from poverty and inequality to creating jobs, expanding health care coverage, climate change, and building resilient infrastructure. Any ambitious proposal, however, inevitably runs into the buzz saw of how to find the money to pay for it, rooted in myths about deficits that are hobbling us as a country. Kelton busts through the myths that prevent us from taking action: that the federal government should budget like a household, that deficits will harm the next generation, crowd out private investment, and undermine long-term growth, and that entitlements are propelling us toward a grave fiscal crisis. MMT, as Kelton shows, shifts the terrain from narrow budgetary questions to one of broader economic and social benefits. With its important new ways of understanding money, taxes, and the critical role of deficit spending, MMT redefines how to responsibly use our resources so that we can maximize our potential as a society. MMT gives us the power to imagine a new politics and a new economy and move from a narrative of scarcity to one of opportunity.

Do deficits matter? Yes and no, says Daniel Shaviro in this political and economic study. Yes, because fiscal policy affects generational distribution, national saving, and the level of government spending. And no, because the deficit is an inaccurate measure with little economic content. This book provides an invaluable guide for anyone wanting to know exactly what is at stake for Americans in this ongoing debate. "[An] excellent, comprehensive, and illuminating book. Its analysis, deftly integrating considerations of economics, law, politics, and philosophy, brings the issues of 'balanced budgets,' national saving, and intergenerational equity out of the area of religious crusades and into an arena of reason. . . . A magnificent, judicious, and balanced treatment. It should be read and studied not just by specialists in fiscal policy but by all those in the economic and political community."—Robert Eisner, Journal of Economic Literature "Shaviro's history, economics, and political analysis are right on the mark. For all readers."—Library Journal

Keeping the economy strong will require addressing two distinct but related problems. Steadily rising federal debt makes it harder to grow our economy, boost our living standards, respond to wars or recessions, address social needs, and maintain our role as a global leader. At the same time, we have let critical investments lag and left many people behind even as overall prosperity has grown. In Fiscal Therapy, William Gale, a leading authority on how federal tax and budget policy affects the economy, provides a trenchant discussion of the challenges posed by the imbalances between spending and revenue. America is facing a gradual decline as debt accumulates and delay raises the costs of action. But there is hope: fiscal responsibility aligns with both conservative and liberal goals and citizens of all stripes can support the notion of making life better for our children and grandchildren. Gale provides a plan to make the economy and nation stronger, one that controls entitlement spending but preserves and enhances their anti-poverty and social insurance roles, increases public investments on human and physical capital, and raises and reforms taxes to pay for government services in a fair and efficient way. What is needed, he argues, is to balance today's needs against tomorrow's obligations. We face significant fiscal challenges but, if we are wise enough to seize our opportunities, we can strengthen our economy, increase opportunity, reduce inequality, and build better lives for our children and grandchildren. We do not have to kill popular programs or starve government. Indeed, one main goal of fiscal reform is to maintain the vital functions that government provides. We need to act responsibly, pay for the government we want, and shape that government in ways that serve us best.

From the authors of the national bestseller 13 Bankers, a chilling account of America’s unprecedented debt crisis: how it came to pass, why it threatens to topple the nation as a superpower, and what needs to be done about it. With bracing clarity, White House Burning explains why the national debt matters to your everyday life. Simon Johnson and James Kwak describe how the government has been able to pay off its debt in the past, even after the massive deficits incurred as a result of World War II, and analyze why this is near-impossible today. They closely examine, among other factors, macroeconomic shifts of the 1970s, Reaganism and the rise of conservatism, and demographic changes that led to the growth of major—and extremely popular—social insurance programs. What is unquestionably clear is how recent financial turmoil exacerbated the debt crisis while creating a political climate in which it is even more difficult to solve.