Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the Co-Chairs of “the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform,” would have us believe that a deficit and debt crisis threatening the fiscal future of the United States is upon us, that “This debt is like a cancer,” and that unless we begin to make across the board cuts […]
Entries from July 2010
Which Would You Rather Cut: Social Security, or Interest for Foreign Governments and Rich Bondholders?
July 13th, 2010 · Comments Off on Which Would You Rather Cut: Social Security, or Interest for Foreign Governments and Rich Bondholders?
Tags: Politics
The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Seven (Conclusion)
July 12th, 2010 · Comments Off on The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Seven (Conclusion)
In my last post, I continued my analysis of the June 26th AmericaSpeaks Community Conversation event I attended in Falls Church, VA, focusing on Step Five in the decision process used in the meeting. In that post I presented the specific option choice frameworks AmericaSpeaks presented to participants in the categories of Non-Defense and Defense […]
Tags: Politics
The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Six
July 7th, 2010 · 1 Comment
In Part 5, I continued my analysis of the June 26th AmericaSpeaks Community Conversation event I attended in Falls Church, VA, focusing on Step Five in the decision process used in the meeting. In that post the specific option choice frameworks AmericaSpeaks presented to participants in the categories of Health Care and Social Security spending, […]
Tags: Politics
The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Five
July 7th, 2010 · Comments Off on The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Five
In my last post I continued my analysis of the June 26th AmericaSpeaks Community Conversation event I attended in Falls Church, VA, focusing on Step Five in the decision process used in the meeting. In that post I was critical of the overall bias in the general orientation toward the options workbook and the choices […]
Tags: Politics
The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Four
July 7th, 2010 · Comments Off on The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Four
In my previous three posts analyzing the June 26th AmericaSpeaks Community Conversation event I attended in Falls Church, VA, I presented the steps in the decision process used for the event, and discussed the pre-conference phase and the first four steps. These reflect a strong and consistent bias toward socializing participants into the idea that […]
Tags: Politics
The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Three
July 2nd, 2010 · Comments Off on The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Three
In my first two posts analyzing the June 26th AmericaSpeaks Community Conversation event I attended in Falls Church, VA, I presented the steps in the decision process used for the event and discussed the pre=conference phase and the first two steps. As we saw, these steps reflected a strong bias toward socializing participants into the […]
Tags: Politics
Why the Fiscal Commission Does Not Serve the American People
July 1st, 2010 · Comments Off on Why the Fiscal Commission Does Not Serve the American People
By James K. Galbraith Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0. President Obama and his economic team face a daunting challenge: how to deliver economic growth they know can only come from deficit spending, while deferring into the future the “fiscal consolidation” which is being pressed on them by practically everyone, from Peter G. Peterson to Angela […]
Tags: Politics
The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Two
July 1st, 2010 · Comments Off on The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Two
In my first post analyzing the June 26th AmericaSpeaks Community Conversation event I attended in Falls Church, VA, I presented the steps in the decision process used for the event and then began a discussion of the steps. I broke off my account in the middle of my narrative of Step Two. Primary Facilitator states […]
Tags: Politics
The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part One
July 1st, 2010 · Comments Off on The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part One
On June 26th, AmericaSpeaks, an organization claiming unbiased neutrality on deficit issues, but funded by the Peter G. Peterson and other Foundations who share the Peterson view that US deficits and the National Debt are something to worry about, convened some 19 Town Meetings, and more than 40 smaller “community conversations,” all tied together through […]
Tags: Politics