this debt position at a town hall in reno, nevada, today. we had a surplus a decade ago. but we cut taxes. including for millionaires and billionaires. we fought two wars. we created new prescription drug plan, and we didn t pay for any of it. a lot of folks promised us a free lunch. as the bush administration was running up the debt, vice president dick cheney actually said, quote, reagan taught us deficits don t matter. joining me now is dr. alice riff rivlin, the founding director of the congressional budget office, and a winner of both the mcarthur prize and the moynihan prize. thank you for being here. glad to be here. let s go to that point that dick cheney made. he said that reagan taught us deficits don t matter.
but president obama told the full story of how we got into this debt position at a town hall in reno, nevada, today. we had a surplus a decade ago. but we cut taxes. including for millionaires and billionaires. we fought two wars. we created new prescription drug plan, and we didn t pay for any of it. a lot of folks promised us a free lunch. as the bush administration was running up the debt, vice president dick cheney actually said, quote, reagan taught us deficits don t matter. joining me now is dr. alice riff rivlin, the founding director of the congressional budget office, and a winner of both the mcarthur prize and the moynihan prize. thank you for being here. glad to be here. let s go to that point that dick cheney made. he said that reagan taught us deficits don t matter.
full story of how we got into this debt position at a town hall in reno, nevada, today. we had a surplus a decade ago. but we cut taxes. including for millionaires and billionaires. we fought two wars. we created new prescription drug plan, and we didn t pay for any of it. a lot of folks promised us a free lunch. as the bush administration was running up the debt, vice president dick cheney actually said, quote, reagan taught us deficits don t matter. joining me now is dr. alice riff rivlin, the founding director of the congressional budget office, and a winner of both the mcarthur prize and the moynihan prize. thank you for being here. glad to be here. let s go to that point that dick cheney made. he said that reagan taught us
at anything like the current interest rates. we re going to have to pay more and more. the government will end up spending a lot of your tax revenues on just paying interest, and we could have a serious debt crisis. meaning at some point, we just can t market our bonds or only at very high interest rates, and the economy plunges into a new and deeper recession. that s a big risk. we can t do that. dr. rivlin, i want to draw on your expertise in thinking about these things in the ideal form. you re in that unusual situation of having worked in the politics of these issues as a budget director, but you also stepped back and can look at them from a more academic perspective. if you were not trapped in the political dimensions that we re living in today in trying to figure out how to make these decisions, what would you recommend as the ideal, the ideal posture that the government take on debt and
at anything like the current interest rates. we re going to have to pay more and more. the government will end up spending a lot of your tax revenues on just paying interest, and we could have a serious debt crisis. meaning at some point, we just can t market our bonds or only at very high interest rates, and the economy plunges into a new and deeper recession. that s a big risk. we can t do that. dr. rivlin, i want to draw on your expertise in thinking about these things in the ideal form. you re in that unusual situation of having worked in the politics of these issues as a budget director, but you also stepped back and can look at them from a more academic perspective. if you were not trapped in the political dimensions that we re living in today in trying to figure out how to make these decisions, what would you recommend as the ideal, the ideal posture that the