I.O.U.S.A. Financial Documentary Premiers Tonight!
Aug 21st, 2008 by Jennifer Lynn
Panelists Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; William Niskanen, chairman of the CATO Institute; Bill Novelli, CEO of AARP; Pete Peterson, senior chairman of The Blackstone Group and chairman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation; and Dave Walker, president & CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former U.S. Comptroller General engage in an informative panel discussion LIVE from Omaha, Nebraska this evening. The discussion will explore the growth of the U.S. national debt and what can be done to make our nation more fiscally sound.
Tonight I’ll be attending an 8:00 p.m. showing at a local IMAX theater and I’m really looking forward to seeing this documentary. Hah, now I know I’m officially a financial nerd!!
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One of the most interesting facts discussed in IOUSA was how only 32% of the budget is comprised of expenditures outlined in the Constitution…the other 68% is how we got into this enormous debt. Sadly I see this trend continuing because politicians do not get elected by saying “No, you can’t have that” (generally). It was discouraging to see that the challenge of getting this message out on the local news can be insurmountable.
I highly recommend the documentary to brokeass readers.
This movie is really good at scaring you. Some of the projections are absolutely bone-chilling. But it largely overstates the problem — the deficit is currently at a manageable level of 3% of GDP. And we need to run a deficit in this economic downturn to ensure we don’t have skyrocketing rates of unemployment. The flim also ignores one of the best solutions to the “problem” — health care reform. If our health care system were as efficient as other industrialized nations, and if Medicare/Medicaid were able to take advantage of these lower costs, then our deficit problem would basically disappear. Check out the Center for Economic and Policy Research, they have a nice graphic that demonstrates this well: http://www.cepr.net/calculators/iousadeficit/calc_iousa_deficit.html