Fiscal Policy: All Articles and Books

What America Needs Is a Good Enemy

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:37:00 -0400

Where is Osama bin Laden when we need him? Don't get me wrong; in no way do I wish death and destruction on our country. But as I listen to the increasingly vitriolic and even seditious rhetoric coming from the political right, I can't help thinking that we need a threatening external enemy to help us cohere as a nation -- a more looming threat than the almost vanished Al Qaeda leader or even his recently arrested alleged minion from Denver.

Where's Osama bin Laden?

Erin Drankoski — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:58:00 -0400

Eight years after September 11, the "war on terror" has gone the way of the dodo. And President Obama talks instead about a war against al Qaeda and its allies.

What, then, of al Qaeda's enigmatic leader, Osama bin Laden, who has vanished like a wisp of smoke? And does he even matter now?

California’s Identity Crisis

Erin Drankoski — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:47:00 -0400

Go North, Young Man

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:11:00 -0400

To understand America's economic future, it helps to look at some of our largest trading partners. Will we move towards a smaller state, a more egalitarian economy or both?

Riding the Ratchet

Erin Drankoski — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:24:00 -0400

In the siege of a city, each of the final days plays out much like the one before, the monotony belying the imminent danger. Early on one particular brilliant and beautiful day last June, a kind of siege played out at the California State Capitol. Health advocates gathered on the west steps to rail against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed cuts to Medi-Cal services for seniors and the disabled. On the north steps came a group of school support workers whose purple shirts--the ubiquitous uniform of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)--read, "Save

Is It About Health Care, or About Making Money?

Cecille Isidro — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:41:00 -0400

Just a few months ago, national health care reform seemed solidly on the path to congressional approval. A popular new president made it his top domestic priority and turned the process over to the leadership of large Democratic majorities in both houses. The path became rocky, though, with most Republicans and many conservative Blue Dog Democrats signaling concern.

Democrats for a Flat Tax?

Cecille Isidro — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:05:00 -0400

Karen Bass is an unlikely tax cutter. She's the Democratic speaker of the California State Assembly, a fierce defender of the labor movement, and an advocate for repealing a constitutional provision that requires that tax increases pass the state legislature with a two-thirds majority.

Obama's Class War

Cecille Isidro — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:17:00 -0400

This week has brought retreat and retrenchment on healthcare. The headline in Politico was, "Health reform hits Senate speed bumps." As Politico explained, the bumps began on Monday, when "The Congressional Budget Office returned a $1.3 trillion price tag on Sen. Ted Kennedy's bill--a number that far exceeds what most lawmakers are willing to pay." And here's how the Associated Press summarized the Capitol proceedings:

California to Feds: Drop Dead

Cecille Isidro — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:01:00 -0400

Sure, California's economy has seen better days, our budget is a mess, and we've been wondering whether the federal government might help us out with our cash flow. But the barbs sent our way by politicians and commentators in Washington are getting to be a bit much.

It Is Summer 2009, and John McCain is President

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:01:00 -0400

Picture, if you will, an America apparently like our own. A country like ours bogged down in war on two fronts and suffering from the greatest economic slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s. An America indistinguishable from ours in every respect except that when you turn on the nightly news you see the face of President John Sidney McCain ...

Health Reform's Savings Myth

Cecille Isidro — Sun, 31 May 2009 09:53:00 -0400

"Health-care reform is entitlement reform" has become a mantra of the Obama administration. The idea is that Congress can add a massive health-care program this year -- covering the uninsured -- and use the same measures that pay for the health reform to fix the broader budget problems. If that sounds too good to be true, there's a reason.

So If We Take Your Terrorists…

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:31:00 -0400

President Obama has a problem. He’s promised to close the detainee facility at Guantanamo, Cuba, but is finding it hard to find a place to put them. States all over the union are saying not in my backyard.

California has a problem. It needs federal loan guarantees for its short-term cash flow borrowing. But President Obama and members of Congress are saying -- at least right now -- that such assistance isn’t forthcoming. The other 49 states, after all, don’t want to bail out California.

Are these two completely unrelated problems?

$4 Trillion in Exaggerated Savings

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 20 May 2009 08:41:00 -0400

On two separate issues -- health-care and the budget -- the president has promised savings of $2 trillion. A total of $4 trillion dollars -- now that's real money. Unfortunately, the claims are completely exaggerated.

The Right's Social Security Scare Tactics

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 19 May 2009 07:47:00 -0400

I Give Obama an A, a B and an F

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:15:00 -0400

The Administration is coming up to that magical 100-day mark, at which point measures are taken of how a new president is doing. As a university professor I'm accustomed to giving grades. So here's my report card on Obamanomics so far:

Fiscal Disorder

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:08:00 -0400

This past February, four months after the beginning of the fiscal year, Congress passed the last bill needed to fund the government.

But what it finally passed was more than just late -- it was sloppy. Instead of offering separate appropriation bills that could be debated thoughtfully and with undivided attention, Congress lumped them into one, gigantic 225-page “omnibus” bill, and hurriedly passed it on the floor.

A Spoonful of Sugar

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:13:00 -0400

As the Tax Day Tea Parties fade into history, I've heard a number of conservatives argue that we're at the crest of a wave. Just as the property tax revolt of the 1970s led to California's Proposition 13 in 1978 and, some argue, the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the tea parties represent outrage against the excesses of big government under Barack Obama. Liberals maintain that the tea parties were instead a fringe phenomenon ginned up by talk radio, Fox News and a handful of anti-spending pressure groups.

Dixieland Blues

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:37:00 -0400

Governors across the country are clamoring for a piece of the stimulus, eager to avoid laying off state employees, hoping to put their unemployed citizens back to work and trying to avoid widespread furloughs as budgets bleed red ink. They know that their citizens want to keep libraries open, teachers in the classroom, cops on the beat and firefighters ready to protect people and property.

Obama's Audacious Agenda: Who's Paying For It?

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:40:00 -0500

Audacity on steroids. How else to describe the Obama administration's fiscal 2010 budget proposal, unleashed on an American public so staggered by the events of the last few months that they cannot comprehend the magnitude of the plans Mr. Obama and his still-inchoate Cabinet have for the nation.

Read Their Lips

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:32:00 -0500

Several years ago, I saw Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, tell an audience of conferencing Republicans that branding is important. If you're Coca-Cola, Norquist explained, your business will suffer if a customer ever finds a rat in a bottle of your soda. Similarly, the GOP will suffer if anything undermines its reputation as the party that lowers taxes. A Republican who ever supports a tax increase must be subject to "quality control", for such a creature is "the rat in the Coke bottle".