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What's Wrong With the Deficit? Part II (1992-12-08)
About this film
A new departure for Firing Line: after the formal debate, an informal free-for-all. Although there are times when everyone is talking at once, connoisseurs of public speech will enjoy seeing the different formats back to back with (mostly) the same participants. And there proves to be plenty more to say--e.g., Mr. Eisner's lucid explanation of a most illucid subject, the federal deficit: "The federal deficit--and by the way, it is not a 'national' deficit; it's a deficit of the Federal Government--is of course the difference between its spending and what it takes in in taxes--what it takes in in revenues, I should say, which is taxes. The problem is that the Federal Government keeps its accounts in a way which resembles that of no private business, state or local government, or foreign government. It does not separate out capital expenditures from current expenditures.... It's as if a person said, 'I'm going into terrible deficit because I am buying a house.' "
Directors & creators
Southern Educational Communications Association
Subjects
public broadcasting, AAPB, William F. Buckley Jr., Robert Eisner, Firing Line, Stanford University, federal deficit, federal budget, government spending, fiscal policy, national debt, economic policy, capital expenditures, taxation, macroeconomics
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