Eugene Steuerle Calls for Third US “Fiscal Turning”

October 10 - Gene Steuerle released an opinion piece yesterday arguing that the United States is due for a new "fiscal turning," or a fundamental reorientation of the government's approach to economic policy. Steuerle identified a first fiscal turn in the period after the Revolutionary War, when the young country expanded the financial powers available to the federal government. The second fiscal turn came at the beginning of the 20th century, when the country modernized its banking system and created an income tax. Now, Steuerle declares, the country is in need of a third fiscal turning. He writes that:

"The third fiscal turning, like the first two, is about far more than fixing programs we know need to be fixed. It's about creating flexibility and slack for government. It's about making possible the resources necessary to modernize and meet new needs, many of which we cannot yet identify. It's about removing automatic and eternal built-in growth in programs - not so much because they failed or succeeded in meeting past needs, but because their constant claim for more and more automatically means less and less for other, potentially more worthwhile endeavors, both public and private."