"I think where I differ a little bit, we absolutely have to think about the deficit looking down the road. And certainly that's something the president has said that we need to, as the economy recovers, have a plan in place for getting it down"
About this Quote
The conspicuous hedging - "I think", "a little bit", "certainly" - is not verbal clutter; its the sound of policy triage happening in public. Christina Romer is threading a needle economists know too well: you can be right about stimulus now and still get kneecapped by politics later if you look indifferent to debt. The line stages a careful two-step. First, she signals internal distinction ("where I differ"), implying there are louder voices on either side: deficit hawks demanding austerity immediately, and stimulus advocates who hear any deficit talk as surrender. Then she relocates the fight to the future: "looking down the road", "as the economy recovers". Thats Keynesian sequencing dressed in Beltway etiquette.
The subtext is partly reputational. After a crisis, economists arent just forecasting; theyre defending legitimacy. By affirming deficit concern, Romer inoculates the administration against the charge that it is using emergency spending as a pretext for permanent expansion. Notice the pivot to authority: "thats something the president has said". This isnt just deference; its coalition management. She ties a technocratic argument to presidential intent to reassure markets, moderates, and skeptical legislators that there will be an exit ramp.
Context matters: this is the post-crash moment when unemployment and output gaps argued for aggressive support, while deficit rhetoric became a stand-in for moral judgment about government. Romers sentence tries to keep the economic logic intact while speaking the political dialect required to keep the policy alive.
The subtext is partly reputational. After a crisis, economists arent just forecasting; theyre defending legitimacy. By affirming deficit concern, Romer inoculates the administration against the charge that it is using emergency spending as a pretext for permanent expansion. Notice the pivot to authority: "thats something the president has said". This isnt just deference; its coalition management. She ties a technocratic argument to presidential intent to reassure markets, moderates, and skeptical legislators that there will be an exit ramp.
Context matters: this is the post-crash moment when unemployment and output gaps argued for aggressive support, while deficit rhetoric became a stand-in for moral judgment about government. Romers sentence tries to keep the economic logic intact while speaking the political dialect required to keep the policy alive.
Quote Details
| Topic | Money |
|---|
More Quotes by Christina
Add to List
