Policy Punchline

William Gale is the Arjay and Frances Miller Chair in Federal Economic Policy and a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of "Fiscal Therapy: Curing America’s Debt Addiction and Investing in the Future." He is also the Co-Director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and served as senior economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush from 1991-1992. The dominant narrative around our national debt is all too familiar: every dollar of federal spending is bankrupting the U.S.; harsh austerity will soon be unavoidable; taming deficits means crippling cuts to crucial programs. In this episode, Dr. Gale turns the orthodoxy of fiscal responsibility on its head, offers insights into the economics of federal spending during a pandemic, and discusses his progressive approach to reducing the national debt. Our discussion centers around Dr. Gale’s most recent book, "Fiscal Therapy." We begin by examining the origin