The following article analyzes the Obama's speech. I encourage to read the article and comment about the impact that the Obama's speech caused in the economy. He said that it is time to promote economic growth. However, do you think it's time to cut the politics of austerity? Do you think its time to have an active government role when one knows that the government is facing a serious problem in its budget?
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
In an Age of Spending Cuts, Making the Case for Government
"Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, fellow Americans, 51 years ago John F. Kennedy declared to this chamber that "the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress." "It is my task," he said, "to report the state of the union; to improve it is the task of us all." With these words, President Obama began his speech yesterday. That was the way that he announced the end of the politics of austerity and suggested a balanced approach between the government and the market.
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ReplyDeleteWhat stood out to me was his talk about taxes. Honestly, I am split on how I feel about them. I think that if our government chooses to take a bigger role then taxes are a way to help pay for it. We can't just increase the things the government provides like healthcare and education without paying for any of it. On the other hand, I'm not sure if that will help the middle class like he says it will. While universal healthcare benefits some of the middle class I fear that the taxes will hurt the middle class more than the healthcare benefits it. Some of it has to do with the fact that a lot of the middle class already had healthcare and now we are also paying for the lower class to have it. Overall, i am still listening to both sides and trying to make an opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think the last thing we need is bigger government. We are already spending way too much on entitlements and doing nothing about our national debt. During his speech, Obama said, “It’s not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth.” I completely agree with this statement. But, I think Obama only said that to try and appease Republicans. I can only hope that he meant what he said and tries to make the government more efficient instead of growing it.
ReplyDeleteAll this talking... without any action! Our deficit keeps growing and so far since Obama has been in office, thats all its ever done. The Federal government needs to come up with some economic plan and get this debt under control. The government needs to become efficient in the areas that are causing this debt to rise. Obama still doesn't have the republican vote and until then, mockery and sarcastic comments will continue to headline the news.
ReplyDeleteIn the interest of accuracy, the deficit shrunk from 1.3 trillion in 2011 to about 1.1 trillion in 2012, and is expected to clock in at about 900 billion in 2013. And as Matthew Yglesias points out,we've already done 2.4 trillion dollars in deficit reduction over the next ten years. Just take a look at this chart here and you'll see that the past couple of years have seen an unprecedented decrease in the level of government expenditures (although a lot of that is coming down from stimulative and anti-recessionary measures).
ReplyDeleteOur real budget problems are going to start as the baby boomers retire. But, cutting discretionary spending will not solve that problem. Instead, it will take some combination of the following three things: A. cut entitlements B. raise taxes in a more efficient manner and (most importantly) C. figure out how to slow rising health care costs. The upshot of this is that there's no reason or need to spend less money on infrastructure, basic research, education, or welfare for the needy. Rather, we should probably spend more.
Clay makes a great point when he says that he hopes Obama is true to his word on his statement claiming that we need a smarter government, not a bigger government. I agree with this because i do not think we need a bigger government, if anything we need a smaller government. The government just needs to prioritize its activities to minimize the nations debt.
ReplyDelete"the nation needs to shift away from the focus on shrinking the government that has dominated politics for the past several years and toward a modestly more activist agenda aimed at tackling persistent inequality and the dislocating forces of a globalized, technology-driven economy," smarter government not bigger. But can he keep this promise...? Can we become a smarter government without spending money? seems to easy... "whether Obama-ism does any better in the long run will be judged in part on his success in changing the austerity narrative along the lines he set out Tuesday night." I like his plan... I just want to see it in action.
ReplyDeleteSomewhat off-topic, I find it interesting that we rarely hear of the role of "illegal" economic migrants in the growth of our economy. Currently, businesses may hire these migrants without fear of being punished--it is instead the migrants that are targeted. Obama wants to raise minimum wage; however, won't this make these under-paid workers more desirable to many businesses? Thus, decreasing employment for the poor that need it? As a nation, can we overlook this and say the gains in general are greater from these under-paid workers and their services are good? Thoughts?
ReplyDelete