Joseph White, Tft Blogger
Recent Stories By Joseph White, Tft Blogger:
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The White House's Careless Language on EntitlementsAugust 8, 2011
The Obama administration could use a little of the Clinton administration's lawyerly phrase-making. The other day White House spokesman Jay Carney called for better budget policy, proclaiming...
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Five Observations About the Debt DealAugust 1, 2011
If the debt deal passes: 1. The debt ceiling deal saves the country and the Obama administration from an immediate economic crisis. 2. The immediate provisions of the...
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Three Reasons Default is PossibleJune 13, 2011
As I write this comment I am in Paris, where I have spent most of the past year on sabbatical. The French are not in a position to say anything bad about American politicians and politics at the...
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Obama's Moderate Budget Has PotentialApril 13, 2011
President Obama's speech at George Washington University on Wednesday helped reassure that budget politics will neither be entirely political nor mindlessly focused on the deficit to the exclusion of...
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Is the Obama White House Serious About Policy?April 12, 2011
The Hill reports that the Obama White House is divided over what position to take on the budget. As John Amato, author of the blog Crooks and Liars, phrases it; the division is between “economic”...
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Ryan’s Budget: Hard to Imagine Something Equally as Extreme April 7, 2011
Rep. Paul Ryan's, R-Ohio, draft budget resolution is very important, but not because there is any chance it could be adopted. It is so extreme that Senate Democrats appear strongly opposed to it,...
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Schurenberg's Social Security Myths: Fiscal NonsenseMarch 9, 2011
Eric Schurenberg has just published, on this website, yet another in a long line of polemics that claim Social Security is actually a "pay-as-you-go" program. The argument says that the Social...
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Dishonest GOP, Exempts ACA from Budget RulesJanuary 7, 2011
Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus wrote Thursday that it’s unfair to accuse House Republican of attempting to curb the deficit by repealing health care and of being hypocrites on fiscal...
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What is Obama Thinking on the Tax Deal?December 7, 2010
Let’s see if I have this tentative tax deal between President Obama and Congressional Republicans right. Obama accepts a "fiscal responsibility commission" and then appoints five commissioners...
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Shear MadnessDecember 2, 2010
Fiscal commission co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson have drafted a horribly unbalanced, and radical deficit reduction plan. The 18-member commission votes Friday, and if I were on it, I...
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No One Is “Raiding” Social SecurityOctober 19, 2010
Yes, it’s an election issue. That just makes it more serious. Social Security’s legislated benefits are threatened both by Republicans, who clearly would prefer that voters depend more on private...
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UPDATED: Social Security Surpluses Are Not 'Only on Paper'August 3, 2010
Sometimes straight news reporting takes as fact things that are not true. This appears to happen when so many "experts" repeat something that the reporters assume it must be true. The recent Fiscal...