"It deprives the nation of a sound fiscal policy, enough money for other counterterrorism efforts such as increased diplomacy and foreign aid, and enough money for a serious domestic agenda.
Moreover, since politicians are usually unwilling to tighten fiscal policy enough in a boom, any loosening of the budget reins tends to result in permanently higher debt.
So far the Obama administration's response to the economic crisis is all too reminiscent of Japan in the 1990s: a fiscal expansion large enough to avert the worst, but not enough to kick-start recovery; support for the banking system, but a reluctance to force banks to face up to their losses.
Even then, financial measures to discourage inappropriate use of EDs need to provide enough fiscal discomfort to those with minor ailments.
These are scary numbers, for a country headed for a fiscal cliff — scary enough to send the Finance Committee scrambling to craft a cheaper version of its bill, and scary enough to give liberals flashbacks to the collapse of Clintoncare.
Those with excess claims will therefore resist, politically, a fiscal policy large enough to restore balance.And then there is monetary policy.
"Can they do enough fiscal adjustments, structural reform, restoring growth, reducing the unemployment rate, restoring competitiveness in time to stop falling off the cliff?
Because heavy interest payments burned up much of its cash, the company was unable to expand quickly enough, fiscal analysts say.
Local-government debts might double that proportion, but China plainly has enough fiscal space to recapitalise any bank threatened with insolvency.That space also gives the government room to stimulate growth again, should exports to Europe fall off a cliff.
His program was aggressively selling Brazil's bounty on the global commodity markets and putting significant government transfer payments in the pockets of Brazil's poor millions, while maintaining enough fiscal and monetary discipline to keep inflation down.
