I.O.U.S.A.
August 27, 2008 · Filed under: Uncategorized
In the latest book by John Linder and Neal Boortz, FairTax: The Truth, they argue the FairTax will supercharge the economy and help avoid fiscal disaster. These sentiments are also expressed by Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns in their book The Coming Generational Storm.
Former U.S. Comptroller General Dave Walker and other concerned Americans including former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, former Fed chief Alan Greenspan, Sen. Judd Gregg, and Warren Buffett appear in a new documentary called I.O.U.S.A. that takes the audience through the story of our rapidly growing national debt — and the consequences we face if our government keeps spending money it just doesn’t have.
4 Responses to “I.O.U.S.A.”
I went to the opening screening of I.O.U.S.A. at the Regent 18 Theater in North Brunswick, New Jersey, wearing a Fair Tax T-shirt and arriving sufficiently early to hand out pocket cards to ca. 200 theatergoers. Given the topic, the theatergoers all took the cards. The film screened in selected theaters across the country.
The film was about four principal deficits: the federal deficit, the personal savings deficit, the trade deficit, and a leadership deficit. I made Fair Tax a presence at the North Brunswick event because of the direct tie-in between the objectives of the Fair Tax and the subject matter of the film.
The town hall-type assembly in the Omaha auditorium was telecast live into the theater, but there was no direct feedback from the New Jersey theater back to Omaha. Questions had been submitted in advance, some from the Omaha audience that were allowed to be read by their authors, and some read by the moderator originating from elsewhere in the country.
Following a brief introduction by Becky Quick of CNBC, the film was shown. Following dramatization of both the current national debt of $9 Trillion and the unfunded liability of $53 Trillion, the film followed the structure of the four deficits outlined earlier. Notably time was spent on the Social Security Trust Fund being used to fund general revenues and how the deficit will be far worse after the fund disappears. Time also was spent on the efforts of the Concord Coalition (Robert Bixley) and David Walker, former Comptroller General of the United States, in taking the message on the road in over 20 states and the District of Columbia.
Following the film, the questions were submitted to a panel consisting of Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway), Peter G. Peterson (CEO Blackstone Group, Founder Peterson Foundation and former Secretary of Commerce), David Walker (Peterson Foundation and former Comptroller General of the United States), William A. Niskanen (Economist, Cato Institute) and William Novelli (AARP). All panelists believed that the serious problem of the deficit can be solved if we act now, but most were less optimistic about the long-term outlook than Buffett.
The Fair Tax was not mentioned during the film or the town-hall meeting, either positively or negatively. There were general comments, particularly from David Walker, that the tax code needed to be reformed to encourage personal savings. Buffet was more sanguine about the effect of our current tax code on savings and investment.
The film did a credible job of making the subject of the looming deficit come alive. As a documentary, it fulfilled many of its educational objectives. I.O.U.S.A. will be worth renting and purchasing when it comes out on DVD.
Jim — thanks for the excellent summary.
Holy Cow, we actually agree on something!
(Actually, as I’ve indicated previously, I think a consumption tax would be useful for replacing the Medicare Tax, and, possibly, all or a portion of Social Security tax. A consumption tax would spread the cost of these programs onto retirees, rather than just on working families., which would help deal with our long-term fiscal woes caused by our SS and Medicare obligations to retirees)
Jim Rohner, an associate producer and film critic for the Film & Video Channel at http://www.zoom-in.com, e-mailed about some content that may be of interest regarding the post. They were able to screen the film and talk to director Patrick Creadon and some of the film’s subjects (including U.S. Comptroller General David Walker) at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
You can listen to the podcast here:
http://www.zoom-in.com/sundance/podcasts/on_the_circuit_i_o_u_s_a_filmmaker_and_subjects
The review can be found here:
http://www.zoom-in.com/blogs/film-video/iousa-review-critical-clips-background-buzz/
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