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Here is Dean Baker's
response to the director of the deficit disaster film, IOUSA. While
there are certainly many grounds to be concerned about the country’s
economic condition, the view presented in the movie is one-sided and
misleading. CEPR issued its analysis of IOUSA [http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/iousa-not-ok/] because
it is important
that the public be well informed about economic issues and not allow
itself to be railroaded into ill-considered policy choices. The movie is screening on campuses around the nation (and locations are added almost daily at http://www.iousathemovie.com/events/). If it's coming to your campus, please help us provide a balanced and well-informed economic debate: Oct. 28: Louisiana State University, Salem College, and Springfield College in MA Oct. 29: Lone Star College-Montgomery, Loyola Marymount University, and Bellarmine University Oct. 30: University of MA-Dartmouth, University of Richmond, and Vassar Nov. 2: University of Arkansas Nov. 3: Utah Valley University Nov. 4: University of Massachusetts-Lowell Nov. 6: University of MI in Ann Arbor Nov. 12: Sacred Heart University in CT, Princeton University, and Ohio State University in Columbus Nov. 16: Bellevue Community College in WA Nov. 18: Wellesley College, University of MD in Baltimore, and Rice University Dean Baker's Response to I.O.U.S.A.
Director Patrick Creadon I am glad to see that Patrick Creadon has seen fit to engage our critique [http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/iousa-not-ok/] of his movie IUOSA, although it is difficult to understand how he can claim that he still does not recognize that his film was one-sided. Mr. Creadon points out that he talked to both Democrats and Republicans, but he chose to interview a select group of Democrats and Republicans all of whom agree with his view about the federal budget deficit. The fact he found one Democratic Senator to agree with his agenda proves nothing. Would a statement from Senator Lieberman show bi-partisan support for President Bush’s war in Iraq? If Mr. Creadon really wanted to show a range of views on the budget he could have talked to Senator Robert Byrd, the former majority leader of the Senate and a long-time Chair of the Appropriations Committee. Or, he could have talked to Senator Edward Kennedy, the chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, and one of the most respected members of the Senate. If he wanted a recent cabinet member, he could have spoken with former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. If Mr. Creadon wanted to talk to a Republican with a different perspective, apart from members of the current administration, he could have spoken to former Federal Reserve Board Governor Lawrence Lindsey or former Treasury Secretary James Baker. If Mr. Creadon wanted to talk to economists who would have given him a different perspective he could have talked to Paul Krugman, Robert Solow, or Joseph Stiglitz, all Nobel Prize winners. He also could have spoken to Brookings economist Henry Aaron, one of the country’s leading budget experts. All of these people would have given a very different perspective, one that is that altogether lacking from the film. Obviously the experts selected were chosen because they share Mr. Creadon’s agenda. There was no effort whatsoever to present a range of views or any balance of perspectives. Clearly IOUSA was not intended to present a balanced analysis of the budget problems facing the country. However, it is more important to deal with the substance conveyed in the movie than Mr. Creadon’s motives. On this point there can be no dispute: the budget problem is a health care problem. As Peter Orszag, the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, has repeatedly pointed out [e.g. here [http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/88xx/doc8877/12-13-LTBO.pdf] and here [http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/97xx/doc9748/09-16-2008-Stanford.pdf]], the projections of explosive long-term budget deficits are entirely driven by projections of exploding private sector health care costs. If the United States could contain its health care costs, so that they only increase in step with per capita income and with the aging of the population, the deficits projected for further decades will be manageable. If per person health care costs in the United States were in line with those of other wealthy countries (all of whom enjoy longer life expectancies than the United States), then the budget projections would show enormous surpluses as far as the eye could see. In short, the U.S. budget problem is really a health care problem. Mr. Creadon could have performed an enormous service if he sought to educate the public on this fact and called attention to the need to fix our health care system. Perhaps the debate surrounding IOUSA will help to correct this enormous failing of his film. -- Nicole Woo Director of Domestic Policy Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) 1611 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 400 Washington, DC 20009 Tel: 202.293.5380 x108 Fax: 202.588.1356 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: www.cepr.net |
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