Mirage: Why Neither Democrats Nor Republicans Can Balance the Budget, End the Deficit, a nd Satisfy the Public - Hardcover

Hager, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0812924525 ISBN 13: 9780812924527

Publisher: Crown, 1997

Synopsis

In Mirage, Eric Pianin and George Hager tell the behind-the-scenes story of the repeated efforts to balance the budget and reduce the deficit: how America got into this mess and why every attempt over the past two decades to get us out has failed.  It is a story of wishful thinking compounded by a chronic failure of leadership -- from Ronald Reagan's something-for-nothing plan to reduce the deficit to Bill Clinton's missed opportunity to enact a deficit plan that would really work instead of making of a modest effort that would spend vast amounts of political capital just to make a dent in the problem.  And it is a warning that American democracy may finally have found, in the budget and the deficit, a challenge it simply cannot meet. The American political system, so adept at reacting to crises and giving people what they want in the short run, is ultimately unable to manage the long-term sacrifice needed to address the budget problem.

About this title

From the Publisher:

"... a hard-hitting scorecard for the shortcomings, evasions and wishful thinking of Democrats as well as Republicans' budget-reduction plans. Hager and Pianin's penetrating examination of the volatility of deficit politics reveals the sharply divergent visions of the role the federal government should play in society."
-- Publishers Weekly

"In depicting responsible governing checkmated by partisan sniping, the authors present a true-life spectacle as funny as a Gillbert and Sullivan operetta and as painful as root canal."
-- Kirkus Reviews

"Eminently readable and accessible."
-- Library Journal

About the Author:

George Hager is a reporter for The Congressional Quarterly, where he covers budget and appropriations in the House and Senate.  Hager's detailed coverage of the way Congress and the White House budget and spend the nation's money has made him a regular commentator on a variety of radio and television news programs, including numerous appearances on C-Span.  He lives and works in Washington, D.C.

Eric Pianin is a congressional correspondent on the national staff of The Washington Post, specializing in budget and economic issues.  He has written for a number of magazines, including Washington Monthly and The Washington Post Magazine, and has appeared numerous times on local television news programs and on C-Span.  He and his wife, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, live with their son and daughter in Washington, D.C.

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0812924525
• ISBN 13: 9780812924527
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 337