The failure of the Congressional budget “super-committee” to address our geometrically expanding debt and deficits should surprise no one. From the beginning the committee was political theater designed to create the illusion of action when the will to act is missing.
Many people are lamenting the failure of the Congressional "Super Committee" to come up with an agreement on ways to reduce the runaway federal deficits. But you cannot judge success or failure without knowing what the goal was.
After two months of talks, the super committee announced failure on Monday to agree on reducing federal deficits by $1.2 trillion over the next decade. But as the late economist Herb Stein once remarked: If something cannot go on forever, it won't.
Further cuts to defense spending probably are necessary, both politically and arithmetically, to make substantial progress toward eliminating deficit spending and reducing our federal debt.
Signs are gathering that the European Union's most recent bail out has not stemmed the rising tide of concern in markets about Europe's fundamental financial or political solvency.
Once again, Congress is being asked to make bad rules that will hurt network security, but this time the blame doesn't fall on the privacy lobby. This time the booby prize goes to the intellectual property lobby.
Advancing a Free Society is the Hoover Institution’s institutional blog. It serves as a platform for original brief analysis that clarifies and enlightens.
