Paul Bass Photo
You haven’t seen the last of Joe Lieberman.
At least not if Connecticut’s retiring U.S. senator succeeds in a plan to make one last splash in Washington before retiring this December after 24 years in office.
He revealed that plan to members of Greater New Haven’s Chamber of Commerce Friday afternoon at a luncheon talk at the Quinnipiack Club on Church Street.
The plan involves waiting until after the presidential and Congressional elections, if necessary — then taking advantage of the lame-duck last two months of the year to pass urgent budget fixes that both parties agree on but fear to pass during the almost endless campaign cycles.
“We’re ready after this election to move quickly,” Lieberman said.
Lieberman noted that the country now has over $15 trillion in debt. Without dramatic Congressional action, 85 to 90 percent of all federal spending will go toward entitlement programs and interest payments on debt by the next decade, he predicted.
Meanwhile, federal revenues used to equal 18 to 20 percent of the gross domestic product during healthier economic times, Lieberman said. It now equals just 15 percent — while federal spending equals 25 percent.
The broad solution is straightforward, Lieberman said:
“You’ve got to limit spending and you’ve got to raise revenues.” And pass a long-term plan to reduce debt.
Lawmakers in both parties know that, said Lieberman, who in 2006 left the Democratic Party to become an independent. But lawmakers feel unable to act because of the influence of well-financed special interests on the left and the right as well as by the disappearance of bipartisan lawmaking. Republicans can’t vote for tax increases. Democrats are reluctant to vote to cut government programs.
As a result, he said, the country is approaching an economic crisis. Social Security and Medicare could go bankrupt, he said. The debt load will leave precious little money for basic government needs ranging from education to defense. And the country could sink to a depression while companies hold back on creating jobs. He noted that American businesses are currently sitting on $2 to $2.5 trillion in assets they’re not investing “because people are anxious about what the future will hold.”
He called a bipartisan debt reduction plan “the best thing we could do to stimulate economic growth.” It would restore confidence in government as well as provide “a sense of certainty to the private sector.”
November and December may provide the ideal time to try to aim for big accomplishments, Lieberman argued. The hyperpartisan elections will have just ended. Some members will not have to face voters again once December ends. New members of Congress (some without a history of working across the aisle) will not take their seats yet. Also, the Bush tax cuts will expire at year’s end, ramping up pressure for action. His one fear is that lawmakers will “kick the can down the road” by approving six-month fixes rather than longer-term solution. He praised the rejected Simpson-Bowles plan the best blueprint he’s seen so far for long-term tax reform and budget cuts.
Lieberman said he’s already started conspiring with Democratic and Republican legislators who, like him, will leave office in a little more than seven months.
They’ve given themselves a cheeky name: “The Bucket List Caucus.” They’ve been accumulating goals for cherished bills to pursue before their legislative career passings. Debt reduction and budget-balancing reform top Lieberman’s list.
“You haven’t said anything about the concentration of wealth” in the U.S., local United Way of Greater New Haven CEO Jack Healy (at center in photo) told Lieberman during a question-and-answer period. “To a lot of us [that is] America’s biggest problem.”
“I don’t know if I would phrase it that way, that it’s American’s biggest problem,” Lieberman said. He noted that the top 1 percent of American earners pay one-third of all taxes; the top 10 percent, 70 percent. “It’s not as if they’re not paying taxes.”
Nevertheless, Lieberman said, “we’re going to have to ask them to pay a little more.” He suggested doing that in a way that still rewards entrepreneurial risk-taking, in order to create jobs.
And “you can’t raise taxes unless you limit spending,” he added. He supported increased payments and some means testing for Social Security, perhaps limiting the wealthiest recipients to receiving what they’ve put into the system along with interest.
Despite the importance of raising taxes, Lieberman told Healy, he believes the country’s biggest problem right now is “lack of leadership from Washington,” not income inequality.
Lieberman pays respects to Chamber chief Tony Rescigno.