Washington, D.C. – As Washington once again seeks to avoid senseless “sequestration” spending cuts, the Center for American Progress will host New York Times D.C. Bureau Chief David Leonhardt on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 for timely and important conversation on his new e-book, Here’s the Deal.
These seemingly endless series of fiscal crises in Washington are rooted in a political debate over how to shrink the federal deficit. But Leonhardt, a 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner, argues that they are also grounded in a failure of the American people to decide what kind of government it wants. He suggests that the American electorate is fundamentally undecided about whether they want a government that tells its citizens to fend for themselves in exchange for low taxes, or one that invests in its people and their economic competitiveness and that our deficits are the consequences of a confused electorate. An electorate that imagines deficits are caused by waste, fraud, abuse, and “out-of-control spending,” when in fact they are caused by rising health costs, military spending, and historically low tax rates.
But Leonhardt finds reason to be optimistic about our prospects for overcoming this fundamental confusion, especially if we commit to policies that make economic growth no less central a goal than deficit reduction. And he offers a way forward that can help bridge a yawning partisan divide.
WHO:
Featured author:
David Leonhardt, author, Here’s the Deal; Washington Bureau Chief, New York Times
Moderated by:
Neera Tanden, President, Center for American Progress
WHEN:
February 20, 2013
12:00pm ET – 1:00pm ET
A light lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m.
WHERE:
Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC20005
RSVP:
RSVP for this event →
For more information, please contact Katie Peters at [email protected] or 202.741.6285.
###