Bloomberg
I'll be interviewed by Betty Liu this morning at 835 am EST on Bloomberg Television on...wait for it...this year's budget debate. It definitely will be "Don't Miss TV."
Remember the "era of deficit denial" that Erskine Bowles, one of the co-chairs of the Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction commission, declared a week ago was over as he introduced the plan he wanted considered?
Well...It may have been a good line that got lots of media attention, but it can now be listed as one of the top overstatements of 2010. As this poll from Bloomberg News (which was taken after the Bowles-Simpson commission's activities were completed last week) shows, Bowles was completely wrong. Here are the three (excuse the obvious pun) money quotes:
The public wants Congress to keep its hands off entitlements such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, a Bloomberg National Poll shows. They oppose cuts in most other major domestic programs and defense.
This is from a poll just released by Bloomberg...
The Republican “Pledge to America” is viewed as a good idea by 48 percent of likely voters, compared to 39 percent who term it a bad idea. Also, more than half (55%) agreed with a statement that the federal budget deficit is “dangerously out of control and threatens our economic future.”
But in the same poll...
Compared to my interview several weeks ago on Fox Business, the folks at Bloomberg TV actually try to ask substantive questions and provide information. Take a look.
The national debt is not usually news.
Except when it's not increased by the time the government's existing debt ceiling is reached and the Treasury has to do some interesting things to manage cash flow, federal borrowing is seldom widely reported. When it is, it's usually only of interest to Wall Street and mentioned mostly by financial outlets like Bloomberg, Marketplace, CNBC, etc.
This has been especially the case in recent years as the White House has tried to dampen public and media interest in anything having to do with the budget, fiscal policy, and federal finances. By not talking about it, the administration has tried to convince everyone that it's not an issue.
