Brian Riedl Quotations

There are precious few legislative days before the election.

There's so much investment capital out there for profitable new technologies. Investors are constantly looking for good ideas to invest in. If these ideas are as good as these companies say, they should have no problem, at minimum, finding a loan.

The biggest economic danger of the next 50 years is the coming crisis in entitlement spending. The problem is the entire health care system is in crisis. The entire U.S. health care system needs to be overhauled. If not, it will literally bankrupt the federal government.

Why do they need special treatment to get a grant?

As bad as the last five years have been, it's going to get even worse the next five years.

It's symbolic progress for Congress to learn that they can terminate programs without the sky falling. Maybe they can come back next year and start terminating programs whose costs make a difference.

I generally would still not count that as an earmark, even though it has a similar effect, because it is such a gray area of how specific is too specific when setting eligibility criteria. I obviously oppose those provisions, but I would not classify them the same as spending earmarks that actually list the name.

The more controversial bills will most assuredly end up in a lame-duck Congress.

Most lawmakers are coming to the conclusion that the spending spree we're seeing right now is unsustainable.

The fiscal situation will probably have to worsen and cause some economic pain before it becomes a priority.