Glenn Hubbard: Government Budgets Are About Choices Between the Past and Future

At the 2015 NABE Economic Policy Conference, now underway in D.C., economist Glenn Hubbard said government budgets are about choices between the past and the future.
Leaving budgets on autopilot (e.g., not reviewing the mass of existing spending over time) crowds out discretionary spending for things like education and transportation and tax relief that can lay the foundation for real, solid growth.
We need to think about growing the pie rather than taxing our way out of problems. There needs to be a changed mindset when it comes to how we approach fiscal challenges.
How do you fix a broken system? Focus first on growth and the future. This means looking at structures that support growth, like R&D, and finding ways to strengthen them.