Wednesday, November 7, 2012

The Next Czar?

Should the president "go big" and bring in someone that will enable the budget to genuinely be balanced in ten years through new revenues, spending cuts, and entitlement reforms? Obama would need to find a successful executive with impeccable problem solving skills, unburdened by fealty to any particular economic philosophy. We have $9 trillion of federal debt forecast over the next ten years. The Budget Control Act (sequester) will handle $1.1T of that and expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts would chip away another $5.2T. Pragmatically, we need to find $2.7T in spending and entitlement cuts to get to surpluses and then another $700B or so to reduce the tax portion of the plan to 50% of the $9 trillion package. Finally, this guy will need to ably work with the president and members of the Republican leadership in Congress. Who could possibly handle such a high profile job?