“Unsustainable is the new normal” (“Fiscal crisis is the new normal”)
The United States entered a fiscal crisis in 2007-2008, with both the federal government and most states deeply in debt. In January 2010, Stephen Goldsmith, a professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, wrote: “Like it or not, fiscal crisis is the new normal.”
On February 2, 2010, Jim Geraghty wrote this for the National Review Online: “‘Unsustainable’ Is the New Normal.”
Both economic versions of “the new normal” have been frequently cited.
Wikipedia: Stephen Goldsmith
Stephen “Steve” Goldsmith (born December 12, 1946) is the former Mayor of Indianapolis and currently serves as the Chair of the Corporation for National and Community Service. He is also the Daniel Paul Professor of Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is a graduate of Wabash College and the University of Michigan Law School, and is an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.
Wikipedia: Jim Geraghty
Jim Geraghty is a conservative activist and regular contributor to National Review Online and National Review. In addition to writing columns for National Review, Geraghty also blogs for National Review Online and is a former reporter for States News Service.
e21 - Economic Policies for the 21st Century
Red-Ink Tsunami: Why Old Ideas Can’t Fix the New Government Perma-Crisis
Stephen Goldsmith | 01/10/2010
State and local governments have faced big budget gaps before. Typically, things get tight for a while, then the economy perks up, tax revenues recover, and deficits are eliminated. Life goes back to normal.
For a variety of reasons, however, today’s budget deficits are different. Government at all levels now faces an inescapable reality – the promises of public services exceed our ability to pay for them – and will do so regardless of when the recession ends. The steady increase in the quantity and cost of public services, coupled with the needs of an aging population and public pension costs have produced a long term, structural deficit.
(...)
Even worse, the costs from our past threaten our future. The debt service required for retired public employee pensions and health care entitlements must be paid – so where do we get the money for roads, schools, and prisons?
Like it or not, fiscal crisis is the new normal.
The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan
11 Jan 2010 02:55 pm
“Fiscal Crisis Is The New Normal”
Stephen Goldsmith lays out the ugly, awful, no-good, alarming fact:...
Before It’s News
Fiscal Collapse Is The New Normal RED-INK TSUNAMI
Contributed by Anonymous on Monday, January 11, 2010 3:46:18 PM
Like it or not, fiscal crisis is the new normal.
Better, Faster, Cheaper (Smart Ideas for Government presented by Steve Goldsmith)
Red-Ink Tsunami: Why Old Ideas Can’t Fix the New Government Perma-Crisis
Posted by Steve Goldsmith
Jan 13, 2010 at 8:00am
State and local governments have faced big budget gaps before. Typically, things get tight for a while, then the economy perks up, tax revenues recover, and deficits are eliminated. Life goes back to normal.
For a variety of reasons, however, today’s budget deficits are different. Government at all levels now faces an inescapable reality – the promises of public services exceed our ability to pay for them – and will do so regardless of when the recession ends. The steady increase in the quantity and cost of public services, coupled with the needs of an aging population and public pension costs have produced a long term, structural deficit.
(...)
Even worse, the costs from our past threaten our future. The debt service required for retired public employee pensions and health care entitlements must be paid – so where do we get the money for roads, schools, and prisons?
Like it or not, fiscal crisis is the new normal.
The Foundry: Conservative Policy News
Rethinking Big Government
Posted January 14th, 2010 at 3:38pm
(...)
In a recent editorial, Harvard’s Stephen Goldsmith discusses why it’s time for all levels of government, from local to federal, to come to grips with the fact that today’s budget deficits are not a short-term byproduct of the recession.
(...)
Rather than continue to throw small solutions at a big problem, it is time for the United States to rethink the public sector. The reality is that government’s promises to the electorate are unsustainable in the long-run and will drive the country to ruin if left unaddressed. As Goldsmith puts it, “Like it or not, fiscal crisis is the new normal.”
Jim Geraghty - National Review Online
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
BARACK OBAMA
‘Unsustainable’ Is the New Normal.
(...)
This sentence from this morning’s New York Times is probably going to resonate for a while and enter the national dialogue: “By President Obama’s own optimistic projections, American deficits will not return to what are widely considered sustainable levels over the next 10 years.”
Hey, “unsustainable” is the new “normal.”
National Review Online
MARK STEYN
February 6, 2010 7:00 A.M.
Unsustainable
We are incentivizing financial unsustainability.
(...)
National Review’s Jim Geraghty sums up Obama’s America thus: “Unsustainable is the new normal.” Indeed. The other day, Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, described current deficits as “unsustainable.” So let’s make them even more so. The president tells us, with a straight face, that his grossly irresponsible profligate wastrel of a predecessor took the federal budget on an eight-year joyride, so the only way his sober, fiscally prudent successor can get things under control is to grab the throttle and crank it up to what Mel Brooks in Spaceballs (which seems the appropriate comparison) called “Ludicrous Speed.”
Often Wrong, Never in Doubt
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Unsustainable is the New Normal
NRO’s Jim Geraghty coins the phrase for the decade.
Posted by Bill Reeves at 12:00 PM
Vydar Blog V2.0
Quote of the Day
2010/02/07 at 1:58 am (politics)
Tags: Barack Obama
“Unsustainable is the new normal.” – Jim Geraghty