Tag Archives: jack heidel

Why I Am Optimistic about President Trump

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I voted for Hillary Clinton last November. Not because I liked her program.  I was voting against Donald Trump.  He is crude, sleazy and a terrible narcissist.  I preferred John Kasich, Governor of Ohio, in the Republican Primary.  But he didn’t make it.  I voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 but he didn’t make it either.
The question now is whether or not the Trump Administration will effectively address our country’s two biggest problems, both of which are very serious and need urgent attention:

  • Slow economic growth, averaging just 2% per year since the end of the Great Recession in June 2009. Faster growth means a tighter labor market which in turn means more workers and higher wages. This in turn means less inequality. Furthermore, it is the United States’ dominant economic strength which assures world peace and stability. The Chinese economy, now half the size of ours, will catch us eventually. But stronger U.S. growth will delay this and enable us to cope with it better when it happens.
  • Massive Debt. The public debt of $14 trillion (on which we pay interest) is now 77% of GDP, (https://itdoesnotaddup.com/2017/01/31/trump-needs-a-wall-of-fiscal-discipline/) the highest since the end of WWII and steadily getting worse. With current low interest rates the debt is now essentially “free” money. But what will happen when interest rates return to normal historical levels? At this point interest payments on the debt will rise precipitously and become a huge drain on the budget. We can’t prevent this from happening but we can lessen the impact by acting now.

Will the Trump Administration take these two problems seriously?

  • For sure on economic growth. His re-election chances in four years depend largely on the fortunes of his base of blue-collar workers. His appointments at Treasury (Mnuchin), HHS (Price), and EPA (Pruitt) all support the tax reform and deregulation needed to get this done. I am confident that Trump will avoid a disastrous trade war.capture99
  • The debt. This is trickier because Trump has said he won’t touch Social Security or Medicare. My optimism is based on the fact that the Debt Ceiling will be re-imposed on March 16 at its level on that date. This will give Congress just a few months to raise the ceiling to a higher level. It is likely that the many fiscal conservatives in the House will insist, in return, for some sort of spending restraint such as a ten-year plan to balance the budget.

Conclusion. We’re not out of the woods yet. But there is a clear path showing the way forward.

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The Trump Critics Need to Calm Down

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The New York Times editorial page is unremittingly hostile towards Donald Trump. My last post reports on an essay in the Atlantic magazine, “How to Build an Autocracy,”  arguing that Trump will seize dictatorial power if he can get away with it.  Now the foreign policy expert Elliot Cohen, whose work I greatly admire, argues that the Trump regime will probably end in some disastrous calamity such as a terrible global recession or war. This is overreaction.

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Several of Trump’s executive orders in the first two weeks are very positive:

  • New Iran Sanctions for conducting ballistic missile tests contrary to agreement. This also implies that the Trump Administration will probably not tear up the Iranian Nuclear Agreement signed in July 2015.
  • Rolling back overly restrictive Dodd-Frank regulations. The financial crisis was not caused by greedy bankers but rather by the bursting of the housing bubble fed by too many government-mandated subprime mortgages. The Dodd-Frank Act is aimed at Wall Street banks but is hurting too many Main Street banks.
  • Federal Regulations. Requiring that at least two regulations be repealed for each new one implemented. This is a gimmick but it is still a move in the right direction.

There are, of course, at least two that are ill conceived:

  • The travel ban to the U.S. from seven predominantly Muslim countries was rushed out without careful vetting but has now been blocked by U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle.
  • Revamping the National Security Council by removing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and replacing him by his chief strategist Steve Bannon. This gives too much influence to an inexperienced amateur.

Conclusion. The American people are taking a clear risk with such an unconventional populist President. But we have huge problems to solve, especially economic (slow growth) and fiscal (massive debt). A President Clinton would not have addressed them effectively. I am quite confident that President Trump will address them.  Furthermore his supporters and their representatives in Washington are capable of restraining him if necessary.

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What, if Anything, Will Restrain Donald Trump?

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The Atlantic magazine has just released a remarkable essay written by the political commentator, David Frum, entitled, “How to Build an Autocracy.”  Says Mr. Frum, “Donald Trump will not set out to build an authoritarian state.  His immediate priority seems likely to be to use the presidency to enrich himself.  But as he does so, he will need to protect himself from legal risk.  Being Trump, he will also inevitably wish to inflict payback on his critics.  Construction of an apparatus of impunity and revenge will begin haphazardly and opportunistically.  But it will accelerate.  It will have to.”

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Let’s assume that Mr. Frum is correct that Trump’s top priority is to enrich himself.  What will stop him from doing this?  A recent column in the New York Times points out that:

  •  54% of registered voters in congressional districts represented by Republicans view Mr. Trump favorably compared with only 42% who view him unfavorably.
    In these same districts, 87% of registered Republicans view Mr. Trump favorably.
  • In other words, the Republican dominated Congress is unlikely to strongly oppose his sleazy and self-enriching behavior.

But there are other constraints on what he does in office:

  • As I said in a recent post in order for Mr. Trump to be reelected in 2020, he will need to substantially speed up economic growth in order to increase the wages of his key blue-collar supporters. He clearly wants to accomplish this.
  • On the other hand, the conservative Republican base, including its representatives in the House such as the Freedom Caucus, will simply not support huge increases in deficit spending for anything (except an emergency) including infrastructure, the military or unfunded tax cuts.
  • In fact, Rep Mick Mulvaney (R, SC), a deficit hawk, has been nominated to become the Trump Administration’s Budget Director. In March the debt ceiling will have to be raised. I expect the many fiscal conservatives in Congress to insist on significant fiscal restraint (e.g. a ten year plan to balance the budget) as a tradeoff for raising the debt ceiling.

Conclusion. Just because Republicans are tolerant of Mr. Trump’s personal behavior does not mean he can successfully ignore the strong Republican desire for fiscal restraint.

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Trump Needs a Wall of Fiscal Discipline

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So says the Concord Coalition’s Robert Bixby. President Trump said in a recent interview on Fox News that he would like to have a balanced budget “eventually,” but not at the expense of higher spending for the military. The problem is, as Mr. Bixby points out, if we delay fiscal discipline in order to increase military spending, what else will we delay it for?  Will we delay it for infrastructure spending or border security or tax cuts?  Will we delay it to protect Social Security and Medicare?

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The Congressional Budget Office predicts (see chart) that, under current law, the public debt (on which we pay interest) will grow from 77% of GDP in 2017 to 89% of GDP in 2027.  Furthermore, mandatory programs (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) will grow from 13% of GDP this year to 15.4% in 2027 while discretionary programs (everything else except interest payments) will fall from 6.3% of GDP today to 5.3% of GDP in 2027.  Interest payments on the debt will grow from 1.4% of GDP ($270 billion) today to 2.7% of GDP ($768 billion) in 2027.

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It turns out that it is possible to avoid this calamitous scenario in the following fiscally responsible way (see the attached table):

  • Note that spending (outlays) is projected to increase from $3963 billion in 2017 to $6548 in 2027, which represents a 5% annual increase in spending every year.
  • But also revenues (tax income) are projected to increase from $3404 billion in 2017 to $5140 billion in 2027.
  • If spending growth could slow down from $3963 billion in 2017 to $5140 billion in 2027 (the projected amount of revenue in that year), the budget would then be balanced in 2027!
  • It turns out that no budget cuts are required to accomplish this. In fact a calculation shows that simply limiting spending increases to 2.6% per year (rather than CBO’s projected increases of 5% per year) is sufficient to achieve this goal.

Conclusion. Above is outlined a plan to balance the budget over a ten year period without making any spending cuts! All that is needed is a modest amount of spending restraint!

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Can We Trust Donald Trump to Do What’s Best for America?

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From a reader of my blog:

You are an eternal optimist. Have you factored in these possibilities:

1. Paul Ryan and others will support the Wall and what it costs.
2. Immigration control will limit much needed manpower.
3. Trade wars with Mexico and other countries might severely reduce the output of
the USA.
4.Tax reform will favor the ultra-wealthy, thus not do much to stimulate the
economy, causing a dramatic increase in the debt.
5. Defense spending will be massive, thus up with the debt.
6. Charter schools will lack sufficient oversight, thus poor results will follow.

You seem to convey that Trump will execute a strategy much as you think it should be done. I doubt it.

The above outcomes are unlikely for the following reasons:

  • Trump obviously likes being President, will continue to do so, and will hope to be re-elected in 2020. His re-election prospects will depend almost entirely on his boosting economic growth in order to increase the wages of his key blue-collar supporters.capture97
  • The quickest way to speed up growth is through corporate and business tax reform and deregulation. Trump’s entire team of advisors and cabinet secretaries, as well as congressional majorities, agree on this strategy. These things are likely to get done, sooner rather than later.
  • A trade war with Mexico or any other major trading partner (China, Canada, etc.) will badly hurt the economy. Trump knows this as well as anyone and won’t let it happen. A 20% tariff on Mexican imports to pay for a wall will just transfer the cost to American consumers and will be very unpopular. Trump’s people can figure this out.
  • Having 11½ million illegal immigrants in the U.S. is a significant problem and Trump has a mandate to fix it. His plan is to 1) build a wall, 2) deport the 800,000 or so lawbreakers amongst these illegals, and then 3) figure out what to do with the rest. This sounds to me like a reasonable plan and has a good chance of being successfully implemented.Conclusion. I admit to being an optimist. It keeps me going! I’ll respond to the other specifics (debt, charter schools, etc.) in the near future.

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Fixing Obamacare: Keep it Simple and Low Cost

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Straightening out healthcare insurance is a high priority for the new Trump Administration and Congress as it should be. The U.S. spends 18% of GDP on healthcare, public and private, twice as much as any other developed country and this percentage is likely to keep on increasing without major changes.

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Republican thought is converging, see here and here, on a plan with these broad features:

  • Repeal of both the individual and employer mandates so that health insurance can be individually tailored and purchased at a much lower cost than under the ACA.
  • A Universal (and refundable) tax credit sufficient to pay for catastrophic insurance coverage.
  • Health Savings Accounts to pay for routine healthcare expenses up to the deductible for catastrophic insurance. Such HSAs could be funded, at least initially, with (refundable) tax credits.
  • High risk pools and coverage for pre-existing conditions. It is estimated that 500,000 people with pre-existing conditions would need protection if the ACA is repealed. This would cost about $16 billion annually, much less than the full cost of the ACA.

Conclusion. Such a plan will insure coverage for all Americans who want it. The high deductibility feature, coupled with HSAs, will strongly encourage healthcare consumers to shop around for the best price on routine care.  Such price consciousness by consumers is the only way (short of a single payer system with severe rationing) to get our national healthcare costs under control.
A modification of such a plan, proposed by Senator Bill Cassidy (R, LA) and Senator Susan Collins (R, ME) would give each state the choice of either keeping the ACA or replacing it with a version of the above plan.  This is a poor idea because the ACA has no cost control and this is what is sorely needed.  In other words, the above plan should be made universal, identical for all states.  Let the states provide and pay for supplemental coverage if they wish.

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On Evaluating President Trump: Put Substance over Style

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In Sunday’s New York Times, the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s Peter Wehner wrote: “Donald Trump is a transgressive personality.  He thrives on creating disorder, in violating rules, in provoking outrage.  He is a shock jock.  . . . For Mr. Trump, nothing is sacred.  The truth is malleable, instrumental, subjective.  It is all about him.  It is always about him.”

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I understand that he is a narcissist but I am paying as much attention to what he does as to what he says.  For example:

  • Economic Policy. A major focus of his campaign was to get the economy growing faster. His appointments so far will help in this regard. Mnuchin at Treasury is for tax reform and financial deregulation. Price at HHS is for healthcare deregulation. Pruitt at EPA is for loosening environmental rules. He may try to negotiate modifications to NAFTA but he is too smart to start a trade war which would be devastating to the overall economy. His best hope for being re-elected in 2020 is to create more jobs and better paying jobs for his fervent blue-collar supporters.
  • Education Policy. K-12 public education for minorities in many big inner cities is a disaster. Betsy DeVos is an education reform activist in Michigan. Shaking up the education establishment is a good idea.
  • Fiscal Policy. Our public debt is much too large and must be reduced, sooner rather than later, before we have a new fiscal crisis. This will be very difficult to do because it means modifying entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare which Mr. Trump has said he won’t do. The Republican House is adamant about shrinking the debt and it is hard to imagine Mr. Trump standing in the way. It will be fascinating to see how he finesses this critical issue.

Conclusion. Far from being a detriment to performing his presidential duties, Mr. Trump’s rhetorical skills could come in very handy in moving our nation forward.

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The Divided States of America: Who’s at Fault?

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Frontline’s two part series, “The Divided States of America” makes the case that the divisive and hyper-partisan political atmosphere of the past eight years was caused primarily by the racially tinged reaction of the extremist Tea Party to the progressive policies of a forward looking, if inexperienced, black president.

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I think that Frontline has missed the most fundamental reasons for our current malaise, namely that:

  • Slow economic growth since the end of the Great Recession in June 2009 has caused great angst and resentment amongst middle-income, and especially blue-collar, workers who have stagnant incomes when they observe all around them the elite professional, managerial and financial classes who are doing so well.
  • Self-righteous attitude of progressives who refuse to accept that conservatives have legitimate, and maybe even superior, points of view on various issues.

For example:

  • National Debt. The public debt (on which we pay interest) is now 76% of GDP, the highest since the end of WWII, and is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to keep steadily getting worse without a change in policy. Right now, with ultra-low interest rates, our $14 trillion debt is essentially “free” money. But what is going to happen when interest rates go back up to more normal levels? It could easily be a new fiscal crisis, much worse than the financial crisis of 2008.
  • Inequality. Inequality has risen somewhat in recent years but slow growth is the real problem. What is especially lacking is new business investment to increase labor productivity. The best way to fix this is with tax reform (lower tax rates paid for by shrinking deductions) and a reduction in government regulation. But this would mean more “trickle down” economics. Horrors!
  • Improving Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act has increased access to healthcare but has done nothing to control costs. Most developed countries control the cost of healthcare with a “single payer,” government run monopoly. But this is anathema to many Americans who neither want to give up personal choice nor want to forgo the innovation which a free-market consumer-driven healthcare system provides.

Conclusion. The driver of our currently divisive political climate is a deep chasm between the fundamental beliefs of the two different sides. How can this deep division be overcome short of a new crisis which pulls both sides together?  A very difficult question.

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What Will Trump Do?

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I did not vote for Donald Trump because of his often crude remarks and sleazy behavior. But I am now cautiously optimistic about the prospects for his presidency based on the quality of his nominees for important government posts.  Like many of his voters, I “take him seriously but not literally.”

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Here is what I think he will do:

  • Economic Policy. He will try to speed up economic growth, well above the average 2.1% annual GDP growth of the past 7½ years. This can be accomplished with tax reform (lowering tax rates paid for by shrinking deductions), regulatory reform (including paring back Dodd-Frank and the ACA), immigration reform and tougher trade policies. Faster growth benefits the whole country and especially the blue-collar workers who voted for him.
  • Improving life in the inner cities. K-12 education is a disaster in many inner cities and Betsy DeVos will be a reformer in the Education Department. Ben Carson grew up in public housing and is an excellent choice for HUD.
  • Foreign Policy. Mr. Trump wants changes from China on currency and trade practices. He also wants more cooperation from Russia in fighting terrorism. He wants our NATO partners to bear a bigger share of their own defense. His Secretary of State designee, Rex Tillerson, supports arming Ukraine against Russia and also supports the TPP trade agreement with Asia. This all sounds good to me.
  • Fiscal Policy. My biggest concern at this point is our national debt, now 76% of GDP (for the public part on which we pay interest) which is historically high and steadily getting worse. The House Republicans are serious about shrinking deficit spending and hopefully Mr. Trump will support their efforts.

Conclusion. Donald Trump has a highly unconventional (but very effective) style of communication. If it leads to progress in addressing our biggest problems as above, then he’ll have a very successful presidency.

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Trump Could Become a Transformational President

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According to the historian John Steele Gordon, “Trump May Herald a New Political Order,” there have been just four transformational presidencies so far in U.S. history:

  • Andrew Jackson in 1828 moved the locus of political power sharply down the socioeconomic scale.

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  • Abraham Lincoln in 1860 preserved the Union, freed the slaves and turned the South into essentially a third world country for the next 100 years.
  • William McKinley in 1896 ushered in an era of almost unbroken Republican dominance which lasted until the 1930s.
  • Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 who overcame the Great Depression and greatly expanded the reach and power of the federal government.

Ronald Reagan in 1980, constrained by a solidly Democratic House, was less transformational than the four presidents above, even though he ushered in the era of Great Moderation which lasted until the Great Recession hit in 2007-2008.
Barack Obama in 2008 took office with strong Democratic majorities.  However the last eight years have proved a disaster for the Democratic Party.  They lost the House in 2010, the Senate in 2014, and Republicans now control most governorships and state legislatures as well.
Now consider Donald Trump’s strong political position as he takes office:

  • The Republicans hold a big majority in the House and a small majority in the Senate. And ten Democratic Senators in states carried by Mr. Trump are up for re-election in 2018.
  • He was elected to change the self-serving ways of Washington and owes little to the political establishment.
  • His cabinet picks, many with excellent qualifications, signal profound changes in government policy, especially lower tax rates and a regulatory environment more friendly to business.

Conclusion. Mr. Trump has excellent prospects for achieving faster economic growth and therefore rising incomes for the blue-collar workers who provided his victory margin. If he can also improve life in the inner cities, as he has promised to do, he and the Republican Party will be unbeatable for many years to come.

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