Balancing the Budget is a Progressive Priority (SpringerBriefs in Political Science) [Paperback]

Donald H. Taylor Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 2012 | ISBN-10: 146143663X | ISBN-13: 978-1461436638 | Edition: 2012

​​ ​ Progressives need a balanced federal budget more than Conservatives, because they believe that government has an important role to play in modern life. Lack of a long term plan to move toward a sustainable budget crowds out short term Progressive priorities: infrastructure spending, green technology, education and needed governmental interventions in the short term to support and improve our weak economy. The federal budget is unsustainable. For all the bluster of the debt ceiling debate, the plan passed so far does not address the changes most obviously needed if we are to ever have a balanced budget again: an increase in taxes and the next steps on health reform to address the biggest driver of our long term budget deficit, health care costs. Slowing the rate at which health care costs are growing is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition to developing a long range balanced budget. You should ask any politician saying they think a balanced budget is a priority one question: what is your health reform plan? Without one, they have no hope of achieving their goal.   This book offers progressives solutions to health care reform and a balanced budget, and will be of interest to academics, students and educated readers interested in politics, public policy and government finance.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Donald H. Taylor is an Associate Professor of Public Policy, Center for Health Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University and is an Associate Professor of Community and Family Medicine and Nursing, Duke Medical Center.

Product Details

• Paperback: 123 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 2012 edition (April 21, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 146143663X
• ISBN-13: 978-1461436638
• Product Dimensions: 0.3 x 6.1 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,044,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Don is an associate professor of Public Policy at Duke University where he teaches classes on health policy. His current research focuses on Medicare policy with a particular interest in patient decision making and Medicare hospice and palliative care policy.

He was appointed by HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius to serve as a member of the HRSA Negotiated Rulemaking Committee that was created by the Affordable Care Act to revise how the federal government identifies Health Professional Shortage Areas and Medically Underserved Areas. He wrote 29 columns on health reform for the Raleigh, N.C. News and Observer and has contributed to The New York Times' Room for Debate forum. He has appeared on North Carolina Public Television, done Office Hours live for Duke University, and taken calls on Wisconsin Public Radio to answer questions about health reform.

He blogs about health policy at www.TheIncidentalEconomist.com
In addition, he is blogging about his book at www.donaldhtaylorjr.blogspot.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Primer on the Fiscal State of the Union May 3, 2012

By Marc F. Bellemare

Format:Paperback

In this new book, Don Taylor makes the case that progressives need to take seriously the idea of balancing the budget. This is an especially timely message given that

- France, another Western industrial and military power whose budget deficit and debt have become unsustainable, is about to elect a man who offers more of the same and refuses to talk about balancing the budget as president,
- Students have been demonstrating and protesting a paltry $1625-over-five-years tuition hike for almost 12 weeks in Quebec, another highly indebted, deficit-running Western state, and
- Many Western states (e.g., several EU countries) are heading toward bankruptcy.

In this book, Don Taylor lays out a clear plan to address our current fiscal problems. Given the author's expertise on health policy, and given the importance of health-care spending in the US, the bulk of the book is dedicated to the options available to policy makers who are serious about curbing health-care spending.

But health care spending is not the only topic the book discusses. The book provides a good historical account of how Americans painted themselves into a fiscal corner. The book also addresses Social Security and military spending as well as a potential reform of the tax code.

Taylor writes in a clear, easily accessible, and engaging way. For me, the most important lesson of the book is that if you want to balance the budget, you have no choice but to accept cuts in either health care spending, defense spending, or both. We can no longer have our cake and eat it too, and Taylor is as brutally honest as one can be when it comes to the hard choices ahead.

In recent history, people have typically elected progressive governments when the time has come to make hard budget choices, perhaps because they trust progressives more than they do conservatives when it comes to making difficult choices involving cuts in social programs. That's what happened in 1992 with the election of Bill Cinton, in Britain in the 1990s with the election of Tony Blair's "Third Way" government, and in Canada in 1993 with the election of the Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party. All three were progressive, and all three were responsible for balancing their respective budgets after years of only taking the fun part of the Keynesian approach (deficit spending during hard times) to fiscal policy without ever remembering the difficult part (budget surpluses during good times).

I was fortunate enough to read an early version of this book when the author sent me a few chapters for comment last year. I then read the Kindle Single version of it when it came out last year. I am happy to see it published in hardcover. Perhaps more importantly, I am happy that it is getting published at just the right time, six months ahead of an election in which our current fiscal problems will drive much of the rhetoric.

4.0 out of 5 stars Creative Ideas on Reforming Our Entitlement System June 17, 2012

By Brad F

Format:Paperback

Don Taylor has written an approachable and clear-headed book on the ills of our entitlement programs--Medicare and Social Security.

His approach, while leaning left ("progressive"), is also bipartisan in tone and he continually reminds the reader that his positions are starting points and any negotiation requires greater compromise. His idealized safety net system is one that has a well-circumscribed fiscal floor and ceiling that cares for our neediest. Everything is up for negotiation within the boundaries of reason and sound policy. Market based approaches, along with revenue cuts, increases and redistribution, as well as program pruning are all there.

He speaks in a conversational tone and offers an accessible primer for readers new to the nuance of policy and politics--the interface at which we move beyond chatter and actually accomplish something. His ideas on reforming Medicaid--a three-headed hydra given the different population of folks it has gradually ensnared--are very interesting and worthy of careful consideration. They are also practical and eminently doable--if the will is there.

Absent however, are the operational elements of his plan, particularly the cost and coverage gains his proposal would generate--as compared to other ideas floating in the policy sphere. However, I don't believe his text was meant to conquer that beast. His intention was to generate ideas and create a starting point--not to solve systems ills in one fell swoop, but to take that first step.

I recommend the book highly. It was a solid read and serves as a nice compendium to his blog site and always enjoyable commentary ([...]).

The text is also current and my hope is he will continue to update and modify his work as the reform landscape evolves.