2. Austin Goolsby spoke. He’s one of the senior econ advisors. Young, funny, balding guy.
His argument: Basically, the #1 thing to keep in mind, above every other thing, is that since 2001 average family earns about $2000 less per year, and expenses are perhaps a few thousand higher.
That’s what blocks people from saving, causes rising debt, eliminates margin for error.
It’s appealing. Blame doesn’t go on people. Goes on “economy leaving people behind.” Which is certainly part of it.
But I suppose I’ve felt we shouldn’t leave consumers out of this, even though they vote, and “economy” doesn’t. Excessive purchase of plasma TVs, buying more house than you can afford, more car than you can afford, etc….ie, in personal terms, people who earn same as me and buy more goodies than me.
3. Then I was thinking about the whole Bill Clinton thing in 1993 cut spending + raise taxes = balanced budget = 90’s growth.
If I heard Goolsby right (which is perhaps 30% likely — thanks to delicious alcohol) he believes that is exactly wrong model.
Setting aside very short term actions for stability’s sake, the medium term Obama plan sounded like increase spending + raise taxes, no balanced budget = 2009+ growth.
Ie, the old plan was to cut deficit in half. To do that now, given commitments we just made to bailouts, means either nix the “halve deficit” commitment or scale back on spending plans. Seems like former. Likely to please base, bother middle.
4. Jon Schnur, Obama Ed Advisor, spoke too. Mixed crowd, some teachers union folks, some charter people like me.
Big picture is:
a. Pre-K – big investment. Unanswered question – means-tested (give to poor kids) or universal (give to middle class kids whose parents currently pay for nursery school or whatever).
b. College – More Pell grants (good idea). Also, $4,000 (via tax credit) for 100 hours of service. Comes to $40 per hour. Not sure about that set-up. I get the idea — we ask for something in return — but if it feels like you earn $12 per hour packing boxes and some college kid effectively gets $40 per hour, might be frustrating….
US is #1 in kids who start college. #32 in kids who finish college. Just behind Bulgaria. No offense to the Bulgars. So that leads up to….better K-12.
c. ….K-12 – unite centrist Dems and centrist R’s to reauthorize NCLB, keeping the standards and accountability, but more money.
Double $ to charters.
Change teacher pay – more $ in exchange for merit pay. Merit pay = both union approved stuff (hard-to-staff schools, teachers who do extra work), and non-union approved (teacher performance as measured by the gains their students make from Sep to June)…but emphasized done “with teachers” not “to teachers.”
Last one harder than it sounds. Such a plan has been falling apart recently in Denver. And Michelle Rhee in DC offered union a contract with the right for each teacher to individually choose red plan (status quo) or green plan (merit-based, with high range of 70k base and 60k bonus). Younger teachers wanted it, but older teachers blocked it from coming to a vote. Now in limbo.
5. Personal plug off-topic. If you’ve read this far, vote for me in the WEEI blogger contest.
