Experts Say Obama Needs to Dial Back Expensive Campaign Promises
By Adriel Bettelheim, CQ Staff
President-elect Obama will need to back off some of his expensive campaign promises and take politically risky steps such as targeted tax increases and cuts in entitlements if he is going to keep the federal budget under control, a group of fiscal experts said on Tuesday.
They said Obama should view the financial crisis as an opportunity to make the case that the nation’s changed economic circumstances have made such retrenchments necessary.
Though Obama’s short-term focus can still revolve around jump-starting the economy and fulfilling some of his trillions of dollars worth of campaign promises, current circumstances make it virtually impossible to follow through on a campaign agenda that has largely revolved around increased spending and middle-class tax cuts, the group of experts from the Urban Institute said at a policy forum.
They outlined a range of deficit-shrinking options that include creating a consumption tax on goods and services to pay for medical care, placing new cost controls on the federal Medicare program and changing the way Social Security benefits are indexed for inflation.
(More here.)
President-elect Obama will need to back off some of his expensive campaign promises and take politically risky steps such as targeted tax increases and cuts in entitlements if he is going to keep the federal budget under control, a group of fiscal experts said on Tuesday.
They said Obama should view the financial crisis as an opportunity to make the case that the nation’s changed economic circumstances have made such retrenchments necessary.
Though Obama’s short-term focus can still revolve around jump-starting the economy and fulfilling some of his trillions of dollars worth of campaign promises, current circumstances make it virtually impossible to follow through on a campaign agenda that has largely revolved around increased spending and middle-class tax cuts, the group of experts from the Urban Institute said at a policy forum.
They outlined a range of deficit-shrinking options that include creating a consumption tax on goods and services to pay for medical care, placing new cost controls on the federal Medicare program and changing the way Social Security benefits are indexed for inflation.
(More here.)
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