Reads of the Week: Changing US Foreign Policy, the Debt Ceiling, and the Cost of Economic Recovery
Each week, we’ll be featuring opinion pieces from the alumni and current participants of AF’s Writing Fellows Program. A few highlights from the past week are below. Do you dream of having bylines like these? Learn more about how the Writing Fellows Program can help boost your writing career!
AUKUS Reveals How America and Europe are Drifting Apart by Gil Barndollar (Summer 2018) in The National Interest
Ater four long years of dealing with Donald Trump, European leaders breathed an audible sigh of relief when Joe Biden was inaugurated as U.S. president in January. Like Barack Obama twelve years before, Biden was seen as a dramatic course correction, a decision by America to pull back from unilateralism and bellicosity and put a sober, responsible leader back in the White House. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen commended the result, describing Biden’s election as a “new dawn in America,” where “after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House.” She committed to renewing ties “with an old and trusted partner”…
The Right Needs a Proactive Response to Endless Debt-Ceiling Increases by Andrew Wilford (Spring 2017) in RealClearMarkets
As Democrats push for a 79th increase in the debt ceiling, it’s tempting for Republicans to simply say that enough is enough. Particularly at a time when Democrats are pushing for $3.5 trillion in new spending in the middle of a second consecutive year running a $3 trillion deficit, the need to rein in the size of the federal government rightly is at the forefront of the conservative mind. But rather than simply working to prevent Democrats from successfully raising the debt ceiling, advocates of smaller government should focus on comprehensive reform to put the country on a path to fiscal sustainability.
Despite progressive faith in Modern Monetary Theory to save the day, the national debt is a time bomb that has only started ticking faster as Congress approved extraordinary spending levels to combat the pandemic. If Congress can’t put in place reasonable guardrails on spending now, imagine how it will fare when politically untouchable programs like Social Security and Medicare explode in cost…
Build Back Better Promises Economic Recovery — But at What Cost? by Krisztina Pusok (Fall 2017) in Townhall
On September 15, the House Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, Veterans’ Affairs, and Judiciary Committees each completed marking up and approving provisions of the Build Back Better Act (BBBA), the legislation intended to implement the Administration’s social and education spending plan. While the provisions included in the Ways and Means Plan are intended to “pave the way” to allow America to Build Back Better, some of them come at significant costs for homeowners, innovation, healthcare, and job opportunities.
The dispersed list of consequences should stand as a clear indication for the unaccounted consequences that Congress is missing when rushing through legislations like the BBBA. First, the plan seeks to raise the top marginal tax rate on individual income from 37 percent to 39.6 percent and the top marginal tax rate on long-term capital gains and dividends from 20 percent to 25 percent…