The national debt and you

Monday, 25 April 2011 13:40

The national debt and you

Written by Scott LaMar, Director of Radio Smart Talk

Radio Smart Talk for Tuesday, April 26:

On Tuesday's show, we'll discuss the national debt, and why we can't seem to overcome the political hurdles necessary to address it in a meaningful way. Most debate over debt reduction in Washington seems perpetually fixated on a small percentage of the federal budget, and disregards the overwhelming majority of expenses tied to national defense, social security, and Medicare. How will we ever really address our nation's debt if we seem unable to have a real conversation about what contributes most to it?

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# Robert Colgan 2011-04-26 01:45

I have a sneaking suspicion that the truth of America's indebtedness is linked umbilically to the truth of the wealth (which is based on all the derivatives and bundled collateral options and the like)------and the truth is that it's largely Enron-esque smoke and mirrors.

The actual debt is beyond actual reckoning but would clearly reflect that America is flat busted.

I'd rather be wrong about this.

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# Jim Dillner 2011-04-26 09:37

The 90's were a boom time for the economy. They made Jack Welsh look like a genius, but now we know that the whole economy was booming and he was just carried by it. In the same way, I'm not sure that we can say what works or doesn't work by looking at one particular era without talking about the fact that that era was a boom time or a depression.

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# robin 2011-04-26 09:45

We don't trust Republicans to modify social programs such as Medicare and Social Security by evidence of how they fought their creation - and that was back when the GOP had some moderates. I 'm reminded of the old Doonesbury "Papa Doc" experiment musing the result of putting the heart of a Liberal into the chest of a Consevative, hoping to get an enlightened moderate but allowing you might just get a "Bigot who like's Brie"

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# M Carolyn Willisford 2011-04-26 09:51

Pres Clinton left a balanced budget and, I believe, a surplus. It seems like the huge debt has come as almost a "surprise." Please could you be specific about when and what the money/monies went for and why the spending was not an issue when it was actually being done and thus becoming the huge debt that we have now.

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# Jim Dillner 2011-04-26 10:07

One of the most outrageous things that our leadership does these days is talking about "investing in green energy" and other similar statements. How does one "invest" when that money is borrowed?

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# Lori 2011-04-26 10:08

One of your "guests" seems to be so politically motivated in assessing blame that I doubt there would be a meaningful conversation to be had. As long as we keep blaming we stop solving the problem. No meaninful conversation will ever reach a solution as long as people keep being motivated by personal or party gains. Think outside the political box and we might be able to solve a few problems.

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# Jim 2011-04-26 16:35

One of your guests maintained that Rep. Ryan's proposal was a serious one but Pres. Obama's was not. I wish Craig Cohen has pushed back on that. I think a similar criticism could be made of Rep. Ryan's plan, because he will not even consider any tax increases, even a partial revocation of the Bush tax cuts. There was an excellent discussion of this point on today's All Things Considered. Follow this link: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/26/135739718/conservative-heavyweights-trade-jabs-over-taxes

You shouldn't let pundits get away with just demogoging an issue.

Take care.

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# james gallagher 2011-04-26 19:28

Its too bad they did't have a real economist like Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Ph.D as a guest - she is at Franklin and Marshal College and would have provided a strong counterpoint to the standard uninformed fare served up by the two guests.

Often SmartTalk goes out of its way to provide guests with differing viewpoints - alas not this time.

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# John Herritt 2011-04-28 13:29

Paul Krugman has a Nobel Prize in economics and has written best selling books on economics. Robert Reich has several best selling books on economics. All Dr. Krugman has said is that we need to focus on putting people back to work then worry about the deficit. What do your guests have? Teaching jobs at Penn State-Harrisburg? There is really good video on YouTube which explains the deficit much better than either of your guests did. To respond to one of your listener call, taxes haven't been lower in a generation. Oh yes, one other comment, we have plenty of money its just in the hands of a few greedy individuals. Any budget proposal, to paraphrase David Stockman, that cheats the poor and senior citizens is NOT courageous!

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