“Economist Mom” Warns About Long-Term Federal Spending Crisis

“This graph is kind of scary,” Diane Lim Rogers said as a slide appeared on the screens in the Appellate Courtroom of Eckstein Hall.

The graph showed accumulated public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product, starting in the World War II years and projected through the next several decades. The path of the line in coming years rose so sharply that Rogers said it would never actually happen. Something will force a change.

That was the core point of Rogers’ hour-long “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” session Oct. 11 at Marquette Law School: We can’t stay on the path we’re on when it comes to trends in federal government revenue and federal government spending. Something will force a change, and it can either come from informed, visionary decision making or it can from the forces that will change things in any case, and perhaps not so gently.

Rogers is chief economist for the Concord Coalition, a national non-partisan organization formed by Republican and Democratic leaders who want to see what they call “generationally responsible fiscal policy.”  

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Feingold Calls for More Cooperation, Less Big Money in Politics

Voters should do more to demand that their elected representatives, regardless of which party they are in, demonstrate that they are willing to work with people on the other side of the political aisle to solve problems, former US Senator Russ Feingold told an audience at Eckstein Hall on Wednesday.

In an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” session, Feingold certainly aired his own political views – he is co-chair of President Obama’s re-election campaign in Wisconsin. But he also called for new efforts to stem the impact of big donations on the political process and for a return at all political levels to times when officials cooperated more with people of differing views.

“It’s up to the people to change the dynamic,” Feingold said, responding to a question from an audience member about the highly partisan climate.. Right now, he said, many elected officials are “listening to anger” more than voices seeking cooperation. He suggested voters tell elected officials that if they cannot provide examples of how they worked with people of differing views at the end of a term, the voters won’t support them again.

Feingold said Republican leaders in Washington never gave Obama a chance as president to work across the aisle. He said key Republicans had dinner together on the day of Obama’s inauguration in 2009 and agreed, “We’re not going to let his guy get anything.” He said, “To me, this was off the charts. . . . It’s not a very good thing to do to the United States of America.”

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New Poll Results: Shifts Among Independents Affect Senate and Presidential Races

Shifting opinions among people who consider themselves independent voters are leading to changes in the shape of the races for Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes for president and for Wisconsin’s open US Senate seat, new results of the Marquette Law School Poll show.

In results released Wednesday for the Senate race, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, the Democratic candidate, led former Gov. Tommy Thompson, the Republican candidate, by four percentage points, 48% to 44%. That compared to a nine point Baldwin margin two weeks earlier and a nine point margin in favor of Thompson in mid-August.

Democratic President Barack Obama led Republican challenger Mitt Romney by 11 percentage points, 53% to 42%, in the presidential race in Wisconsin. That compares to a 14 point lead (54% to 40%) in results released two weeks ago.

Professor Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll, said all four of the candidates have high levels of support (more than 90%) among likely voters who identify themselves with each candidate’s party. But there are changes among independents. Franklin said, “In mid-August, independents leaned a bit Republican in the Senate and slightly Democratic for president. In mid-September, they leaned strongly Democratic in both races, and now they are swinging back to more competitive balance.”

The results showed substantial gender gaps in both the presidential and Senate races, with majorities of women supporting Obama and Baldwin and majorities of men supporting Romney and Thompson.

The new polling was conducted from Sept. 27 to 30. The results are based on answers from 1,003 registered voters, of whom 894 were considered likely to vote in November. The margin of error among likely voters is 3.3 percentage points.

For details and results of all the questions in the new poll, click here.

 

 

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