Abstract
In a point-counterpoint with Henry Aaron, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Eugene Steuerle discusses five pressing fiscal problems facing America, and suggests tax and budget reform options to address these issues. This discourse includes agreement and disagreement, yet is honestly presented without the noise and confusion that often surround these issues. Steuerle’s and Aaron’s essays originally appear in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Steuerle, C.E. (2010) “America’s Related Fiscal Problems.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 29(4), 876-883.
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Does America have a major fiscal problem? I don’t think anyone would say that the
answer is “No.” The complication is that the United States, like many OECD countries,
has five “fiscal” problems, all intertwined:
- Short-term or countercyclical policy. Fiscal policy needs to operate countercyclically,
as it did during the recent recession. But now it is scheduled to
turn pro-cyclical during an upturn, diminishing flexibility for dealing with the
next recession.
- Long-term sustainability. The nation’s projected long-term deficits—that is,
deficits that will mount if today’s policies don’t change—are not sustainable
and threaten our economic viability.
- Fiscal democracy. The law now commands such extraordinary commitments
of limited revenues to mandated programs—those that by design operate
eternally under rules written by yesterday’s legislators and without any
vote by newly elected legislatures—that fiscal democracy is at risk.
- Fiscal sclerosis. Our budget is for a declining nation—one tilted toward
spending more on consumption and less on investment, particularly in our
children.
- An aged age policy. Total cost aside, our policies toward the elderly can be
much more fair and efficient.
These knotted fiscal issues have hit our economy simultaneously and interact
multiplicatively. Short-term countercyclical policy, which generally requires rises in
the debt-to-GDP ratio to counter recession, can’t work unless that ratio is reduced
during good economic times. But, for the first time in U.S. history, large long-term
deficits are being predetermined even if future Congresses do nothing, thus constraining
short-term policy options. Meanwhile, our down-the-road deficits derive
largely from putting into the law unbalanced commitments for low revenues and
rising benefits, thus robbing future voters of their say over how to meet new budgetary
demands or emergencies. Sclerosis occurs because these commitments
increasingly direct revenues toward consumption, less work, and less saving.
Finally, our policies toward the elderly increasingly favor those with fewer needs
and are programmed to discriminate forever against single heads of household,
among other regrettable design features.
(End of excerpt. The full article is available in PDF format.)
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