Friday 4 November 2011

Peter Orszag’s Stance And Understanding On The US Budget

Different economists have varying perspectives of how to tackle the budget, and Peter Orszag was no different in his role as the Director of the Office for Budget and Management until July 2010 – one of the pivotal roles in deciding how US money is spent. His perspectives and economic values greatly influenced the direction that the Obama administration and America took as a whole in allocating Government expenditure, and Orszag believed that greater analysis was vital to ensuring a successful outcome. In this article, we are going to show Orszag’s stance on dealing with certain aspects of the budget while in office.

As Obama’s legacy of a healthcare reform was developing through Congress, Orszag believed that the increased spending on health in the nation’s budget needed to be carefully assessed, otherwise it had the risk to worsen the problems of the nation fiscally over the longer term. Because of this, he ensured that his office invested into greater resources to analyze the implications of the new policies which were coming in, phasing in programs which were not using finances effectively under the previous government. Because of the extensive budget deficit, Obama believed that there was a mandate to begin acting even before he began office on January 20, 2009, by appointing Orszag and even holding press conferences in 2008 after the result had been announced.

It seems that the President-elect at the time realized the pressure he was under to address America’s economic woes before they worsened, instead of waiting until he assumed office to address the problems, which could have developed into a severe crisis by that time.

This was why Orszag’s discerning eye was employed so early on in the process, in pre-Presidential policies that were the most radical since Franklin. Upon assuming the provisional role, Peter Orszag proceeded to forego his old position of managing the Congressional Budget Office, in which he coordinated as many as 230 on critiquing economical issues, and the policies which were being pushed through the processes of government.

Peter Orszag’s stance could be attributed to his inspirations as an economist, and the people who he studied under in his previous years and while at the London School of Economics. For example, some of his mentors included Alan Blinder, Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Rubin as he developed as an economist in later life.

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