Comments on: Obama Doubles Down

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:52:23 +0000

Mr. Kwak – The CBPP report (on the 2008 report of the Social Security and Medicare Trustees) you link to makes the point you should have made in your article — that adequate funding for Social Security after 2041 is not a significant problem and can be fixed relatively easily.

The entitlement problem is with increases in Medicare spending *if the increased cost of health care generally* is not addressed. So, the solution to controlling entitlement spending is controlling the cost of health care for all of us.

Perhaps you can address this again directly in a future post.

By: caustic

caustic — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:50:14 +0000

If he actually makes an attempt to address the real, politically tough, long term issues in conjunction with a short term fiscal package … I will drop dead of pragmatist glee immediately.

By: Karl

Karl — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:03:28 +0000

Why is deficet spending by the government even remotely defensible? What good is another 1.2 trillioin in “new money” when there already exists 4 trillion in “Total Savings” and 2.5 trillion in “Institutional Money Funds”?
It seems the stimulus plan is simply an overconsumption plan with no net benefit and long term harm.
Aren’t all the people holding these record amounts of cash simply looking for a good deal the government seem determined to not materialize?
And whatever happened to the transparency for the TARP, have they been able to find the bottom of those “toxic assets” why has that been swept under the rug?