Our $12 trillion hole….and how to dig ourselves out of it
The national debt is like the dangerously over-stuffed closet in your hallway: you know that it’s about to explode, with potentially disastrous consequences, and yet as long as it’s out of sight it’s easy to ignore. The cumulative American debt is $12 trillion, and is projected to continue growing as we fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, continue to spend money to prop up our weak economy and continue to pay for huge entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security. Patt talks with a panel of experts who will chart how we dug ourselves this huge hole and how we can dig ourselves out of it—and the risks of not acting now.
The national debt is like the dangerously over-stuffed closet in your hallway: you know that it’s about to explode, with potentially disastrous consequences, and yet as long as it’s out of sight it’s easy to ignore. The cumulative American debt is $12 trillion, and is projected to continue growing as we fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, continue to spend money to prop up our weak economy and continue to pay for huge entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security. Patt talks with a panel of experts who will chart how we dug ourselves this huge hole and how we can dig ourselves out of it—and the risks of not acting now.
Guests:
Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition
David Walker, former Comptroller General of the U.S.; president & CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation
Isabel Sawhill, senior fellow & co-director of the Center on Children & Families at Brookings Institution; former associate director of the Office of Management & Budget in the Clinton Administration
Andrew Biggs, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute; former deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration in the Bush Administration
- Patt Morrison for November 11, 2009
- President Obama's Asian Agenda
- New approaches to wounded warriors: Obama Admin & veterans’ affairs
- Veteran voices
- Crenshaw to get light rail
- Our $12 trillion hole….and how to dig ourselves out of it
Also on this episode
Events
Comedy Congress Live
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
7:30 p.m.
- 9 p.m.
The comedic material emanating from Washington D.C., and state capitols across the country, is enough to make any sitcom writer jealous, even if most of that comedy is unintentional. Our motto on Comedy Congress is that just when politics makes you want to cry, it’s usually best to laugh.
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