S5E26 | "One Big, Beautiful Bill" - Budget Entitlements in U.S. History

Did you know that all of the growth in federal spending as a percentage of the national income is due to the growth of "uncontrollables"?

In this interview, we discuss the following:

►What are "uncontrollables"? Why are they 'mandatory'?

►What are entitlements? How are they treated differently than discretionary budget spending?

►What was the Budget Resolution Process that was introduced in the 1970s?

►How did Pres. Cleveland, Roosevelt (FDR), Reagan and Clinton control government budget?

►Which president reduced our entitlement programs the most?

►What was FDR's biggest mistake, the consequences of which still impacts us?

►What are the 3 requirements for reducing the budget deficit?

►How would my guest advise a U.S. president in reducing our budget deficit?

🚩About My 42nd Guest Scholar:

Dr. John Cogan is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, where his research focus is on the US budget and fiscal policy and federal entitlement programs. From 1994-2019, Dr. Cogan was a professor at Stanford University. He is a recipient of the Stanford-in-Government's Distinguished Service Award and the Stanford Review’s Best Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Dr. Cogan served under President Reagan as assistant secretary for policy in the US Department of Labor from 1981-83, and in the US Office of Management and Budget, as associate director from 1983-85 and as deputy director from 1988-89. He was a member of President George W. Bush’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security, the US Bipartisan Commission on Health Care, the Social Security Notch Commission, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Panel on Poverty and Family Assistance. He was also a member of the California State Commission on the 21st-Century Economy and the California Public Employee Post-Employment Benefits Commission.

His books include the following:

• "The High Cost of Good Intentions",
• "The Budget Puzzle", and
• "Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Five Steps to a Better Health Care System".

Here is my 2022 interview with Dr. Cogan.

🚩Recommendations:

History of Public Debt, 🎧S3E32: do democracies demand more debt?

"In Defense of Public Debt", a book by Dr. Eichengreen.

In this interview, Dr. Barry Eichengreen takes us through the history of how monarchs, prime ministers and presidents used debt, why some used it wisely and how others grossly wasted their national resources with debt spending. This is a history of war as much as it is the history of absolute monarchs, parliamentary power and democracies.

🚩Adel Aali

host & producer

☑️Where to find my program:

Home:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://historybehindnews.com ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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