The Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS) hosted Stephen Moore, a senior economics writer and member of the editorial board for the Wall Street Journal, last Thursday, Apr. 12 in the Glass Pavilion. Moore shared his views on the current state of the economy and discussed the policies necessary to improve the United States economy after the recession.
Moore began the event by outlining two subjects he felt were crucial to the future of the United States economy: healthcare and energy policy.
Moore disagreed with the principles of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which requires individuals who are not covered by employer or government insurance plans to purchase health insurance or pay a fine.
“This is a desecration of state’s rights. There’s nowhere in the Constitution that gives the federal government the authority that requires someone to buy health insurance,” Moore said.
While Moore believes that PPACA impedes interstate commerce and grants the federal government too much power, he agrees that healthcare needs to be reformed.
“I give Barack Obama a lot of credit. He’s exactly right. I think we are paying way too much for healthcare in this country, it’s just that Obamacare would actually make the system worse, not better,” Moore said.
In Moore’s opinion, one of the greatest issues concerning healthcare is that Americans tend to have too much health insurance.
Moore discussed the need for healthcare to become more cost-conscious. He said that healthcare insurance should be used for big risks, such as cancer, rather than small risks, such as annual check-ups. If more customers paid for healthcare out of their own pockets, competition would lead to competition in the industry and drive prices down.
Moore also disagrees with Obama’s energy policy. He believes that the United States should welcome energy development and tap into all of its resources. He highlighted significant technological advances, such as hydraulic fracking and horizontal drilling, which have made the search for oil and natural gas more efficient.
“I happen to think the President has the complete wrong view of energy policy. We should be doing everything we possibly can to develop our oil and natural gas industries,” Moore said.
Moore advocated for allowing the free market to work rather than limiting oil and natural gas development, as the Obama administration has done. Moore believes that the United States possesses a future in energy, especially with oil and natural gas developments in states such as North Dakota and West Virginia.
“The reason this is such an important economic story is that I believe. . .that, within the next 10 or 15 years – and this is an amazing thing to say, and I believe it is true – within the next 10 or 15 years, the United States can be an oil exporter and a natural gas exporter,” Moore said.
Moore continued on to discuss his views on the current condition of the U.S. economy.
“If we had done exactly the opposite of what Bush did and exactly the opposite of what Obama had done, in terms of interventions and the economy, in my opinion, we’d be significantly better off,” Moore said.
Moore disagreed with the U.S. government bailouts caused by the recession.
“I just don’t believe bailouts are ever, ever, ever justified,” Moore said. “I think that we should let the bankruptcy system work if people make bad financial decisions. They are the ones who should bear the brunt of that , not the general tax payer.”
Moore opposed the $800 billion fiscal stimulus bill, as he does not believe in the idea that government spending creates jobs and wealth.
“The reason government spending does not create jobs is very simple. As Milton Friedman used to say. . .’There’s no such thing as a free lunch,’” Moore said. “If the government spends a dollar, ladies and gentleman, the dollar has to come from someone.”
Moore said that the U.S. economy needs to adopt policies similar to those enacted by Ronald Reagan during his presidency. These policies, which consist of cutting tax rates and managing inflation, would, in Moore’s opinion, help get the U.S. economy back on track.
Moore finished his discussion by emphasizing two major issues that America’s younger generations will inherit, which include inheriting enormous debt and maintaining a competitive edge against burgeoning economic superpowers, such as China.
“In four years — the last year of the Bush administration and the first three years of the Obama administration — we have borrowed more money than all of the money it took to fight the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Great Depression, the Cold War,” Moore said, putting the U.S. debt into perspective. “I mean, it’s unbelievable how much we have borrowed,”
Moore says students should be concerned with the question of which country will surpass the U.S. and become the next superpower.
“What China is doing right now, is they are hyper-obsessed — their government — with competitors,” Moore said. “Nobody is focusing in Washington about competitiveness.”
Despite future challenges, Moore believes Americans have reasons to remain optimistic about the economic future of the U.S.
“One of the reasons I am so optimistic about the future . . . you’re going to see such amazing advances in your lifetime, and it’s incredibly exciting, and it’s because of the digital age,” Moore said.
The event featuring Mr. Moore was well attended by both students and faculty.
“FAS does a great job bringing in speakers with different perspectives,” sophomore Myriam Kane said. “I enjoyed hearing Mr. Moore’s opinions and predictions on the future of the economy.”
FAS co-sponsored this event with the Economics department at Hopkins.
“Mr. Moore provided a very critical analysis of some of the administration’s current policies sparking great dialogue with students, as many of his views were quite controversial,” Eleanor Gardner, Executive Director of FAS, wrote to the The News-Letter in an email. “He was very honest and critical of certain policies which was great as it forced students with opposing views to formulate their own beliefs and carry out thoughtful debate on some of the largest economic issues we are facing.”
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