I think it’s a gross exaggeration to say, as Robert Samuelson does, that President Obama has sown the seeds of a future financial crisis with the healthcare reform bill he signed into law last week:
So Obama is flirting with a future budget crisis. Moody’s emphasizes two warning signs: rising debt and loss of confidence that government will deal with it. Obama fulfills both. The parallels with the recent financial crisis are striking. Bankers and rating agencies engaged in wishful thinking to rationalize self-interest. Obama does the same. No one can tell when or whether a crisis will come. There is no magic tipping point. But Obama is raising the chances.
I think it’s a lot more accurate to say that he’s carefully tending the seeds that were planted by his predecessors in the office.
Under the most optimistic of conditions the healthcare reform bill will shave a measly 1% from the projected deficit from 2009 to 2020 and in doing so the Congress will have already plucked the low-hanging fruit while simultaneously expanding the government’s commitments and poisoning the well for future reform.
So, what next, guys?
I think that is exactly right Dave. Obama wont have sown the seeds but he sure is taking care of them. Watering them, fertilizing them, giving them…well…love.
Change you really can believe in.