White House budget director Peter Orszag has his hands full these days trying to wrangle down a deficit that has ballooned to an estimated $1.4 trillion. Part of that borrowing was necessitated by the recession, while part of it was designed to shorten the economic crisis.
Orszag says the federal deficit needs to be cut to about 3 percent of economic growth in the coming years to reduce the sea of debt. At the same time, the U.S. has to guard against sending the economy into a tailspin by pulling back too soon on stimulus programs.
Striking a balance is “extraordinarily challenging,” Orszag tells NPR’s Steve Inskeep….
Orszag makes no apologies for not projecting a balanced budget anytime in the near-term: “You have to remember the situation that we inherited.”
We need the “Misery Index” again.
When will they tire of the “we inherited” line? The outgoing administration cooperated closely with the incoming crew following the election, properly so, I think, considering the economic mess and the election results. The Obama administration has been in the game, then, for a year, and its prescription for the economic crisis, the stimulus bill, has failed. What are their plans now? The pending health care bill, plus the cap and trade item, if it passes, will make the deficit and the economy substantially worse, not better.