“We might be a healthier democracy if we were a slightly less democratic one.” Really? Writing for the New Republic, Peter Orszag, Obama’s former head of the Office of Management and Budget, suggested that Americans need to transfer much of the operation of government out of the hands of Congress and into the hands of unelected bureaucrats. As a remedy to supposedly systemic gridlock, Orzsag proposes creating automatic boards of unelected administrators and “trigger” mechanisms that automatically set policy unless Congress specifically proposes an alternative. Orszag is not alone in …
Newly-elected conservatives heading to Washington next year have a lot to do to curb the size of government and get federal deficits under control. Requisite to achieving these goals is the full repeal of Obamacare. According to Peter Orszag, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Obama, leaving the health law intact would create savings. But this couldn’t be farther from reality. Orszag claims that Obamacare will reduce the federal deficit and Medicare spending. What isn’t mentioned is that, though it’s true that spending on Medicare …
Former Office for Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag recently wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times on the need for medical malpractice reform. Well, kind of. Orszag’s approach has more to do with creating stricter mechanisms to enforce physicians’ compliance with evidence-based guidelines than with reforming the tort system to better protect doctors and patients. Orszag writes, “What’s needed is a much more aggressive national effort to protect doctors who follow evidence-based guidelines. That’s the only way that malpractice reform could broadly promote the adoption of best …
According to a recent White House video explaining the administration’s opposition to extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austan Goolsbee claims: “If you ask objective economists and analysts around the country about what is effective you will find that everyone agrees that these giant tax cuts for very high income people are the least effective thing that we can do to get the economy growing.” Everyone agrees? If your definition of objective economists is limited to the White House’s economic team, then perhaps this …
According to reports, Christina Romer, Chairman of the President’s Council of Economics Advisers (CEA) is calling it quits. Why does this matter? Another ignored economist leaves Washington with a slightly tattered professional reputation to be received joyously back in the arms of her colleagues in academe having served in a glorious cause—pass the brie and chablis. Well, it matters, at least a little. It matters because the notice given means the CEA still matters. As a CEA alum, I’m encouraged that even in this Administration the outward appearance, at least, …
And so we have finally arrived at the heart of the matter. In recent days, Peter Orszag, the now-former director of the Office of Management and Budget (he left the position at the end of last week), and Ezra Klein, the like-minded liberal blogger for The Washington Post, have weighed in — again — on Rep. Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap.” Orszag did so in a farewell speech at the Brookings Institution, and Klein in a blog post that went up yesterday. Their takes on the “Roadmap,” and specifically how it would …
This week attention has been focused on President Obama’s pick of Jacob Lew to replace outgoing Peter Orszag as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. While Washington focuses on his record and qualifications, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) tried to focus attention back on the failure of Congress to pass a real budget this year, saying in a tweet yesterday: What good is a WH budget director without a federal budget?less than a minute ago via FacebookJohnCornynJohnCornyn As we discussed earlier this month, in shield their members for a politically …
Earlier this month the Treasury Department found that all 19 banks subject to government “stress tests” passed. Now this past Sunday, White House Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag announced that: “The freefall in the economy seems to have stopped.” Economic catastrophe was the only rational supporting both the $700 billion TARP and the $787 billion stimulus. Now that the “freefall” is over it is time to repeal TARP and repeal the stimulus.
