Letter below was published in The Bernardsville News on December 12, 2013 under the title “Proud progressive presents proposals”.

EDITOR:

The words liberal and conservative have by now been assigned so many different meanings that they are largely useless in serious political discussion. But the word progressive still means pretty much what common sense says it means.

The verb progress is associated in my thesaurus with words like move forward, improve, and ameliorate. A progressive is one who works to progress, to make poor conditions better, and to identify problems and resolve them. I am a proud progressive.

A writer in this space on December 5 ridiculed progressives and described them much differently. I found the remarks factually flawed and offensive. Readers may review this rant and judge for themselves. I will move forward and present here some examples of progressive actions and proposals.

Our most pressing national need in the short term is to grow the economy and produce jobs. This has been the case since the financial collapse in 2008. The stimulus program authorized in 2009 helped turn the economy around, but it was too small and for too short a period. Some economists said this in 2009. They and others have subsequently called for more stimulus. Almost every effort by the Obama administration to grow the economy has been blocked by Republicans in Congress.

Government must move to fill the void when business people and consumers substantially reduce their spending. Example: Launch a solid program to update and expand the nation’s infrastructure. This is simple Economics 101. Progressives learned this lesson. Retrogressives in Congress did not. Driven by ideology they are pushing a program of austerity and reduced spending. Recent economic history of Europe shows that this does not work.

In the medium term, say the next 25 years, we must reduce the national debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This peaked after WW2 in 1946 at 122%, declined to 31% in 1981, rose to 64% in 1995, declined to 54% in 2000, and rose to 100% in 2012. Annual deficits have been declining and the overall debt ratio is expected to be below 100% when final figures for fiscal 2013 are published.

The average ratio of national debt to GDP over these 67 years was 58%. This is a reasonable goal for the medium and long term. It is wrong to choke economic growth now in an attempt to reduce debt. It will be much easier to reduce annual deficits and the debt ratio when the economy is healthy. There is no reason to push for a lower debt ratio over the longer term and pass over important needs . A balanced budget amendment would put the country in a fiscal straight jacket and be economically disastrous.

What is required is work to slow the growth of health care costs. These are a major component of federal spending. The Congressional Budget Office projects this component to rise from 4.6% of GDP today to 8.0% in 2038. So long as these costs are growing faster than GDP, they are a problem for both the national economy and the federal budget.

The U.S. pays much more per capita for health care than other advanced countries. There is great potential for cost reduction. There is evidence that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is already slowing growth of total health care costs. Full implementation of the ACA will remove fears of financial ruin from health care charges and of death from inadequate care. It will become much easier to develop and introduce practical cost saving measures in a businesslike and orderly manner.

The imperative for the long term, and for the world we will leave for our children, is to slow climate change. There has been little real dialog on this critical issue, and there is no consensus yet on what to do.

Some progressives argue that the best strategy now is to impose a fee on the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels, increase this by a scheduled amount each year, and allow the free market to generate ways to conserve energy and to use alternative sources of energy. I wrote about this in a letter published here on August 8.

Bill Allen, 12-08-13