I flipped through the executive summary and the charts. Basic thoughts:
1. I agree with caps on fed spending and taxes although I’d like to see ‘em lower
2. I agree with tax simplification
3. I agree with the need to generate 3 percent productivity growth out of the public sector although I’d make it higher and extend it to the heavily subsidized sectors like healthcare and higher ed. We’ve had negative prod for decades in these sectors.
4. All in all I’d be tickled pink if we did this
The most encouraging thing to me is how the politics are lining up. The left seems to be fighting an entitlement Armageddon – refusing to budge and continuing to pretend that Obamacare is ‘revenue neutral’. That means that all spending restraint is going to fall on the rest of the government which is where the democrat party gets most of its funding – govt unions, govt subsidized businesses, etc. etc. Holding on to entitlements means the extermination of a lot of the administrative state.
But the Dems are trapped by the oldsters who get most of the swag from entitlements – they abandon them and the whole New Deal scam falls apart – just like for Madoff – you have to keep the fiction up or everyone stops believing. Yet every year the political calculus turns more against them – fewer winners and more and more angry losers. Wait too long and the whole schmear collapses in on them.
From that perspective a hard left wing, inert "tool of the machine" like BHO is a screaming disaster for the left. He doesn’t have the savvy or the independent perspective or frankly, the experience or skills to navigate the rapids of the most challenging policy environment since the Great Depression.
He’s in a barrel and Niagara is just ahead. And the Dems are in the barrel with him. No wonder Bowles denounced him.
Steer, Barry! Steer!
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