The New Republic

The piece I posted last Friday has unleashed a torrent of criticism. Alas, some of it is based on a misunderstanding of what I said, and much of it reflects an unwillingness to face political reality. I did not--repeat, did not--propose "abandoning health reform." Here's what I said: READ MORE >>

While the attention of politicians, pundits, and the people is focused on the increasingly bitter debate over health insurance reform, economic developments will have a more profound effect on the well-being of the nation and the fortunes of the Obama administration. Only an economy that provides a steady stream of new jobs and raises personal income can yield enough revenue to restore public confidence and finance the government we need. READ MORE >>

While the attention of politicians, pundits, and the people is focused on the increasingly bitter debate over health insurance reform, economic developments will have a more profound effect on the well-being of the nation and the fortunes of the Obama administration. Only an economy that provides a steady stream of new jobs and raises personal income can yield enough revenue to restore public confidence and finance the government we need. READ MORE >>

Over the past three election cycles, congressional Democrats have rebuilt an arithmetic majority. By the end of this year, they will demonstrate whether they constitute a governing majority. Now, as in the early 1990s, the acid test is health insurance reform. And now, as then, the failure to act as a governing majority will jeopardize, and could erase, their arithmetic majority. READ MORE >>

Members of Congress who hold the balance of power, including Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus and the Blue Dogs in the House, have concluded that the health care proposals emerging from committee up to now would do too little to control costs. The next phase of deliberation and bargaining will revolve around strategies for reining in costs without reducing the quality of treatment or the pace of innovation in the health care sector. READ MORE >>

CBO director Doug Elmendorf’s written testimony before the Senate budget committee today should be required reading for anyone interested in understanding our long-term fiscal plight. Among its many instructive features, it challenges--tacitly but fundamentally--the Obama administration’s dominant fiscal narrative. READ MORE >>

Although the current economic downturn is not a depression, neither is it a normal recession. Instead, it signals an abrupt transition from the previous state of the world to a very different one. Our economic future depends on how well we understand, and respond to, this momentous shift. Consider how the operating assumptions of recent decades have been shattered: READ MORE >>

Overlooked--or at least underplayed--in the first wave of commentary about the House of Representatives' health care proposal is its real long-term cost, as estimated by the CBO on July 14. Although the total price-tag for the 2010-2019 decade is "only" $1.042 trillion, the major features of the proposal don't kick in until the fourth year. In effect, we get only seven years of the program within the ten-year window, for an average net cost per year of about $150 billion. READ MORE >>

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Whatever the pace and shape of the recovery may be, the U.S. economy faces a decade of fundamental--and probably wrenching--change. Among the most important shifts: A quarter century of relentless personal consumption will give way to a new era of saving. READ MORE >>