There are increased concerns that, despite the need for spending to help get the economy out of the recession, little attention is being paid to addressing the ballooning debt once this is (hopefully) accomplished:
- Clive Crook: Looking into the Fiscal Abyss.
- Brookings Institution: Here Comes the Next Fiscal Crisis
- Brookings Institution: An Update on the Economic and Fiscal Crises.
The same point can be made about the current level of debt, and out ability to address the potential increases in the debt, made below about California. It's a product of the democratic system. We get into debt because we spend too much and tax too little, both are easy to do. The hard part is cutting the spending and raising the taxes that allow for debt to be driven down. If an elected leader would go out on a limb and propose either or both as a solution to the current fiscal crisis, would he or she be re-elected? If not, whose to blame? Is debt an excess of democracy?
