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A balanced budget is the price many Republicans want President Joe Biden to pay in exchange for raising the debt ceiling – and that’s the message House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will likely deliver when he sits down with Biden later today.
The federal government has managed to balance its books so that revenue exceeds spending only once since 1969. Former President Bill Clinton oversaw four years of government surpluses during his second term in office – and it’s been a sea of red ever since.
Could the government do it again?
Not likely, writes Linda J. Bilmes, a senior lecturer in public policy and public finance at Harvard Kennedy School. Bilmes, who worked for the Clinton administration when it achieved this rare feat in the late 1990s, describes their balanced-budget recipe and explains why the numbers Congress must grapple with in 2023 make a repeat performance exceedingly difficult.
Also today:
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Linda J. Bilmes, Harvard Kennedy School
House Speaker McCarthy wants to put the US on a path to a balanced budget as debt ceiling negotiations begin with President Biden. Here’s why it won’t be easy to repeat what Bill Clinton accomplished.
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Environment + Energy
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Sita M. Syal, University of Michigan
If the EV transition focuses exclusively on drivers in privately owned cars, it won’t meet many Americans’ mobility needs, particularly in underserved communities.
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Peter de Menocal, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
An ocean scientist describes plans for an ‘internet of the ocean,’ with sensors and autonomous vehicles that can explore the deep sea and monitor its vital signs.
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Politics + Society
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Howard Manly, The Conversation
America’s complicated history with race can be told through the lives and times of Black Americans, a view that some GOP-controlled state legislatures want to restrict, if not outright ban.
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Miguel Schor, Drake University
When candidates can get elected to Congress based on a mountain of lies they’ve told, is it time to reconsider whether such lies are protected by the First Amendment?
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Jessica S. Henry, Montclair State University
Most prosecutors are elected in uncontested races across the country. But there are signs that the posts are becoming political hotbeds, placing more pressure on the criminal justice system.
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Health
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Estelamari Rodriguez, University of Miami
While lung cancer rates have decreased by 43% in men, they have risen by 79% in women. New screening guidelines and recognizing early symptoms can help address the changing face of lung cancer.
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Arts + Culture
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Kevin J. Krizek, University of Colorado Boulder; John Hersey, University of Colorado Boulder
As many cities grapple with the housing crisis, some places are rewriting regulations and finding creative ways to repurpose these hulking masses of concrete that suck up valuable real estate.
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Economy + Business
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Janet Bednarek, University of Dayton
On Sept. 30, 1968, the first Boeing 747 rolled off the assembly line, ready to hit the skies as the biggest commercial jet at the time. Some 55 years later, the last one has left its factory.
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