Clifford Asness on 1967

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2011/05/clifford-asness-on-1967

Money manager Clifford Asness writes, given President Obama's sudden front-page fixation on rolling Israel's borders back to the pre-1967 lines that Abba Eban called the "Auschwitz" borders: "In the spirit of inherently 'reasonable' historical precedent, and given the current situation is 'unsustainable', we propose rolling back the giant ever-growing socialistic regulatory liberty-crushing nanny state to its pre-1967 borders."

I love it. For comparison's sake, federal outlays in 1967 were $157.5 billion, compared to today's roughly $3.8 trillion, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget. Even using the OMB's "constant" inflation-adjusted 2005 dollars, federal outlays in 1967 were less than a third of what they are now.

This reminds me of my point about President Obama wanting to go back to the Clinton tax rates, but not to the Clinton spending levels. It's selective nostalgia.

by Ira Stoll  |  May 20, 2011 at 9:18 am Related Topics:  Government Spending, President Obama, Taxes receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list