Congress was busy working on fiscal policy today. This morning, over on the House side, it held its first hearing on President Obama’s fiscal stimulus proposal. As one of the witnesses, I argued that the fiscal policy responses thus far to the unemployment problem have not been effective. Consisting mainly of short-term temporary and targeted interventions, the policy has not had a sustainable impact on economic growth and unemployment. Instead, the policy has increased the federal debt and raised uncertainty, which is an impediment to economic growth. Unfortunately, the proposals made by President Obama on September 8 consist largely of the same type of temporary and targeted interventions that have been tried for the past several years. Recent experience and past experiences show that this type of fiscal policy will not increase economic growth, certainly not on a sustained basis. It will not therefore bring the unemployment rate down to pre-recession levels which should now be the goal of policy.
Over on the Senate side this afternoon, there was a hearing on more comprehensive tax and budget reform. I testified there too, along with Alan Greenspan and Martin Feldstein. I briefly laid out a more permanent and predictable alternative to the President's temporary and targetted proposal—a budget strategy to raise economic growth with revenue-neutral tax reform. It builds on the Budget Control Act and brings spending to the level of 2007 as a share of GDP.
Over on the Senate side this afternoon, there was a hearing on more comprehensive tax and budget reform. I testified there too, along with Alan Greenspan and Martin Feldstein. I briefly laid out a more permanent and predictable alternative to the President's temporary and targetted proposal—a budget strategy to raise economic growth with revenue-neutral tax reform. It builds on the Budget Control Act and brings spending to the level of 2007 as a share of GDP.
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