US Rep. David Price visits UNC, talks economy and politics

As U.S. Rep. David Price, D-N.C., spoke to an overcrowded lecture hall of students Monday evening, it became clear that he missed the political atmosphere of the 1990s.

Price said America experienced a period of economic growth and prosperity, a balanced budget and an economic surplus in that decade. Politicians worked across party lines to strike comprehensive budget deals — a stark contrast to today’s divisive political climate.

“We have to chart our way back,” he said. “There was something in there for everybody to hate — that’s why they were pretty good deals.”

Price said a turning point in fiscal policy came when former chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan told the Bush administration that it would be dangerous to pay off the national debt too quickly.

“It was a green light for the Bush tax cuts … and they were not paid for, not one dime was paid for,” he said.

The pay-as-you-go rules were forgotten as the economic surplus from the Clinton administration disappeared, he said. The deficit spending that began in 2002 under Bush was fatal given what happened next — the recession of 2008, Price said.

“We were in a position of fiscal weakness,” he said. “We had gone back to the patterns of bad old deficit spending.”

But Price said the political atmosphere has changed over the past two decades.

Instead of working across party lines, Republicans started playing a game of “brinksmanship” — refusing to pass an appropriations bill for 2011 by filibustering anything more than a six-month continuation of the current bill.

Price, also a former public policy and political science professor at Duke University, summarized the reasons why the United States is in its current fiscal crisis while staying true to his teaching roots.

Boone Turchi, an economics professor at UNC and an old friend of the congressman, invited Price to the University to give his introductory economics course a congressman’s take on today’s economic climate.

The Carolina Economics Club and the Philosophy, Politics and Economics club cosponsored the lecture.

Sarah Whitford, co-president of the economics club, said Price spoke about the divide between academia and Congress at a dinner before the lecture.

“One of the things he does in Congress is get academics to work with politicians and bridge the divide between theory and politics,” she said.

Michael Bojanski, a freshman business administration major, said the speech came at a good time in light of current events.

“I’m in an Econ 101 class and it tied in nicely with a lot of the stuff that we’re talking about,” he said. “While I may not agree with everything he was proposing or advocating, I do think it was a good discussion.”

Price has been visiting many of the universities in his district, including N.C. Central University and Duke, to talk about fiscal policy.

“I like to teach,” he said. “I think our country needs a lot more economic literacy, so people don’t fall for phony remedies.”

Anna Kelley, a freshman English major who attended the lecture, said she enjoyed Price’s talk despite its subject matter.

“I can’t stand Econ, but I really liked his speech,” she said.

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