by Dayo Olopade Info
Dayo Olopade is a political reporter for The Daily Beast and a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation.
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Joshua Roberts / Getty Images As Obamaâ??s budget chief heads for the exits, he spoke to Dayo Olopade about why a bigger stimulus was politically impossibleâ??and the administrationâ??s plans for the Bush tax cuts.
Peter Orszag is the kind of man who gets people hot under their collar. Halfway through his appearance at the Brookings Institution in Washingtonâ??an affair otherwise dominated by tie clips and tax policyâ??a single heckler broke into song: â??Peter Orszag and Larry Summers, theyâ??re fascist pigs, theyâ??re fascist pigs,â? he yodeled, in a reasonable baritone. The man, who identified himself as a supporter of Lyndon LaRouche, was hustled quickly from the room. Orszag flushed beneath his eternal tan. The crowd of budget wonks murmured dissatisfaction: That is not how Washington works.
Then again, Orszagâ??s â??You Lie!â? moment may reveal one of the reasons heâ??s getting out of Washington on Friday. The director of President Barack Obamaâ??s Office of Management and Budget has been an unlikely public face during a year and change of tumultuous negotiations over health-care reform, two annual budgets, deficit reduction and a controversial non-discretionary spending freeze. The wonk who once wrote an obscure blog for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on, among other issues, poetry, became Obamaâ??s high-profile evangelist for reducing long-term federal debt by increasing government spending on health care and job creation.
His tenure in an increasingly gridlocked Washington took a toll on him. â??Iâ??ve spent four years in government,â? he told The Daily Beast after his Brookings speech. â??The government is not a nimble thing.â? He described being in the room during heated debates over the size and scope of the 2009 stimulus packageâ??a raw spot with liberals who feel the flagging economy is a result of not dreaming big enough. â??I can personally guarantee you there was a 0.000 probability that it could have been any substantially larger.â? That decision, he later conceded, was due to political imperatives that had nothing to do with economic ones. â??Were I back at Brookings, I would have been writing papers over whether this could have been done differently.â?
Despite his good-faith efforts to back the presidentâ??s vision for change with charts and numbers, he became a high-profile target of the left and the right.
The liberal Center for American Progress swiped at the Orszag-backed spending freeze (which left education and research intact) as the work of â??budget peacocks.â? Andrew Breitbartâ??s right-wing Big Government blog hammered Orszag for his (incorrect) 2007 predictions about American credit and housing markets: â??Orszag will move on to another think tank (probably to watch how his bankrupting the country unfolds), completely unaccountable for the financial damage he has done to America.â? Andrew Zarowny of Right Pundits, also welcomed the news of Orszagâ??s resignation: â??Given how nearly everything he says or thinks has been proven to be wrong, his sudden departure may be a blessing.â?
Despite the drama, Orszag has produced resultsâ??and demonstrated surprising influence from a comparatively minor cabinet position. â??Theyâ??ve done a hell of a lot in a year,â? says William Gale, the Brookings economist who introduced Orszag at his farewell. At Brookings, where he had been a fellow before joining the CBO, Orzsag took the time to outline his legacy in government, from working over members of Congress during the health-care debate to assisting the team of top-flight economists who have been working round the clock to fix the U.S. economy. â??We did the work of six months in six weeks,â? he said, referring to the flurry of accounting that went into the stimulus package.
â??Iâ??ve spent four years in government,â? Orszag told The Daily Beast. â??The government is not a nimble thing.â?
He cited a new paper from Moodyâ??s economist Mark Zandi and Princeton Universityâ??s Alan Blinder, noting that, minus the Recovery Act and the administration of the Bush-era bank bailouts, American GDP would be 6.5 percent lower, and the economy would be short 8.5 million jobs. The signature achievement of Orszagâ??s time in the spotlight, however, will be the â??rapidly growing wedge of deficit reductionâ? that is the Affordable Care Act. As one of the most zealous and involved members of Obamaâ??s cabinet, he helped drag health reform legislation over the finish line, and didnâ??t mind gloating about â??the most promising set of reductions to future cost growth in history.â? He also took the time to lob grenades at his most vocal detractors during the processâ??specifically Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, whose ideas on health-care reform, Orszag said, are â??fundamentally flawed.â?
12 July 29, 2010 | 12:12am Twitter Emails
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THEN AND NOW: When Reagan's budget chief departed, David Stockton fired a cannon shot over the Presidential bow by saying that the Reagan "trickle down" economics was nothing more than "voodoo economics. Many would concur today now looking back at failed policies by the Republicans since then. Orszag, by comparison, leaves with a reminder that they are on the right course but they could have done more if not for the Party of NO--NO progress, NO conciliation and NO new ideas.
Shut up stupid and get the Facts straight!
typical teabagger, fingers in the ears
Unfortunately Those ARE the facts. It's called history- And Stockton left this thing Called a 'quotation'. That means he actually said the words Inside the quotation marks. You are not entitled To your OWN facts Just because you call someone else Stupid.
You can't handle the TRUTH DB!!!!
Get OUT you LYING sack of shit! Where are the JOBS? Where is the BUDGET?
What does this troll contribute to the subject, dwboozer? Boozing too much lately?
Orszag is one of the best and brightest. Summers, Geitner, Bernanke, Greenspan, all the best and brightest. And the current economy is the result of their best efforts. Yet Progressives salivate over a government-controlled economy, run by the best and brightest. Go figure!
It took Reagan's voodoo economics 30 years to crater America. And you want rainbows and puppy dogs in 18 months? In spite of all the supposed 'patriots' that call themselves conservatives standing on the bank and throwing rocks, Obama and most of the Democrats are actually pulling us out of the ditch that you crashed us into.
Now we know Orzag lied about the financial impact of the "Affordable" Care Act as already it is $180B over being budget neutral and millions of Americans have already seen premium increases. Thousands of US businesses have incurred billions in extra costs not mentioned. We now know that Orzag lied about the benefits of the "stimulus" package which has given us an incremental 2M unemployed beyond what the Obama regime projected if we did nothing. Orzag will now scamper off the stage just like any other cockroach would when you turn on the lights. Good riddance!!!
Wowie, Mauiboy. If Reagan's plan to increase federal revenue on the back end by empowering entrepreneurs to generate more of it up front was voodoo, what do you call Obama's plan to increase federal revenue by removing it from entrepreneurs and handing it directly to bureaucrats for redistribution to those with a history of consumption without production? May I suggest - "stoner economics?"
Interesting point Prokov. My question to you is this: What was the reason for TEFRA about?
why do people put so much credence in what academics say? they have consistently been proven to be wrong, out of touch, internally fractious and jealous of each other, political and incapable of thinking beyond their narrow disciplines.
In the last session of congress, Orzag's party pushed through $1.8T in new spending. The administration's 2011 federal budget doubles public debt in 5 yrs and triples it in 10. Even if you believe in short term Keynesian stimulus to maintain aggregate demand in the face of a deep recession, there is no rational for the administration's budget massive spending for the next 10 yrs, other than redistribution of wealth and turning the country into a European welfare state. And how's that working out in Europe? Greece, Portugal, Spain? Albeit slowly , European economies are moving away from Keynesian economics, ,exercising fiscal discipline, and giving more power to their private sectors. The stimulus was a $1T boondoggle for unions, the public sector, and big banks (all run by democrats) satisfying a political constituencies even as the economic vitality of the country is being drained out of the true job creators, small business. These metrics of jobs saved or GDP without stimulus are make-believe analysis by democrat spin-meisters. The health-care bill was the most dis-honest piece of legislation in history. Even the HHS actuary now admits this bill will not "bend the cost curve" but raise costs...how convenient that we are hearing this now. A short list of items not counted in the original CBO score: - taking $70B in premiums meant to go to the CLASS act and use it to pay for the health-care bill - taking $53B in taxes meant for social security and use it to pay for this bill - $71B in discretionary appropriations to run and fund programs to implement new law - taking $398B from Medicare "trust fund" will not go to solvency of Medicare but instead will go to this bill - another $200B for the Medicare doc fix. And we are not having a debate about raising taxes, this administration has already signed into law $674B in new taxes. By every metric, Orzag has been a complete failure. I hear he's good at being a Washington stud and impregnating women; perhaps he can go on "The View" to charm those nit-wits.
Sorry, cmdriker, but European countries are moving toward Keynesian economics. Germany has finally realized it can't be a deficit hawk, and it has started providing stimulus to other EU countries. But you have provided a nice summary of Fox News talking points (although you forgot to mention those pesky teleprompters).
lol aland2...lol ! Angela Merkel has refused obambi's request to print more $ and spend greater amounts of stimulus at the latest G20 meeting. We are being schooled by the creators of socialism! As for Germany providing stimulus to the PIIG countries , they did not want the collapse of the euro...a collapse driven by the statist, social welfare state policies which you admire. Face it, Keynesian economics and socialism sounds great until you run out of other peoples money. But keep avoiding fact based arguments and level the "Fox news" rants....perhaps next you'll call me a racist? you democrat/liberals are the most ignorant twits
The government is broke Not just financially but morally Its compromised if not out right owned by oligarchs and the powerful seeking to preserve their advantage Don't matter who is in charge Been getting there for 30 years We just see this more clearly now given the gap between the rhetoric of BO and reality For the public its a loss of/seeing the difference between confidence and a confidence game I couldn't say it any better "Confidence...thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live." Franklin D. Roosevelt
Honesty, honor, fulfilling sacred obligations, faithful protection, and unselfish performance won't get many votes these days, Brian. In fact, I'm firmly convinced that a totally honest candidate - one who answered all questions - could not win any national election. American voters don't want to hear the truth. America gets the government it deserves.
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