Seeking budget enlightenment?
August 17, 2012, 12:30 pm
Posted by Margaret O'Brien Steinfels
There has been much back and forth on budgetary matters vis a vis campaign 2012. I have just finished reading David Wessel, Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget. It is a clear and concise look at the federal budget, how it grew, proposed remedies for the deficit (and why they’re so hard to implement), and the politics that keep us from resolving the problem. Wessel, a WSJ reporter and columnist, writes clearly and at times wittily. Not Paul Krugman (my favorite), but that would be a plus for some! Available on Kindle. Not long!
Why no comments after all this time?
It’s a boring subject? Perhaps none of the passionate debaters on the issue don’t need a factual background to their arguments. Just guessing!
It’s a good and informative read.
The basic difficulty in solving the USA budget problem are the special interests called Senate and House Committee Chairs. These people keep things complicated in order to preserve their bailiwicks. We have an expensive defense department because separate committees fight for the interests of the separate services. How many different committees oversee some federal law enforcement agencies? It goes on and on. Congress has organized itself for dysfunctional operations by its resistance to looking at the whole picture and seek efficiencies. Do not blame the civil servants who operate within the limitations of Congress. The expertise is there in both the Congressional General Accountability Office and the Executive Office of the Budget, but the political realities and individual interests of Senators and Representatives to have their own spheres of personal influence sink all practical solutions. What can get past committee heads severely limits effective solutions for the nation.
I’ve just started reading it. I got the book at my local Barnes and Noble, and yes, it is highly informative and for economics it’s particularly clear, or, rather, I should say for economic history it’s clear. He doesn’t argue cause and effect, he just tells the verifiable history and let’s you draw your own conclusions.
One encouraging thing — he thinks that the Office of Budget Management is indeed non-partisan, or at least it has been so far, even when pressured by the politicians. Says it’s one of the few government entities that works.
Nothing like clear writing! Glad you are reading it.