SDS Briefing for Friday, January 13, 2012

Veronique de Rugy Is Awesome.

If I could name any five people, living or dead, with whom I could have lunch, Veronique de Rugy would be on that list.  An economist and researcher at George Mason University, de Rugy often writes for the Libertarian publication Reason magazine. 

I ran across this piece she wrote in July regarding the debt ceiling issue, which is timely today given the fact we are fast approaching the recently raised debt ceiling - again.  In short, she uses studies from Harvard to demonstrate the best way to reduce debt and the size of government is not by raising taxes, but rather by cutting both government spending and taxes.  While a bit technical in its jargon, it demonstrates clearly what is needed to pull us back from failure.

And lest you think I am fear mongering (I get accused of that regularly....although my "mongering" is pulled straight from the headlines of mainstream news sources.  I am just connecting the dots.), de Rugy drops this gem in the middle of her article: "According to the Congressional Budget Office, [our national debt] will reach 200 percent in 2037- if the economy doesn't collapse first (which it likely will)."  (emphasis added). 

Did you catch that?  A respected economist who isn't buying or selling a book or a subscription to a financial newsletter just said our economy will "likely collapse" in the next 25 years due to our political leaders' collective inability to manage our finances.  And sadly, that 200 percent figure does not include unfunded and unaccounted liabilities (discussed in the article) for things like Medicare and Social Security.

Again, I rhetorically ask the Suburban Dad Nation: if you disagree with my conclusions, what are yours?  And how did you arrive at them?

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