I.O.U.S.A. - Patrick Creadon

I.O.U.S.A. aims to be “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Economics,” though I think I might need “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Economics’ for Dummies.” It tries to explain more than two centuries of economic policy in 85 minutes, which is like trying to fit the Atlantic Ocean in a teacup; it needs a sequel, a prequel, a spinoff, and a weekly TV series, and even all that might only be enough to cover the George W. Bush presidency, which, we learn, was both more catastrophic and less catastrophic than we thought it was.

I’ve always been good at math. I scored 740 out of 800 on my SATs in math, earned straight A’s in my classes, was better at math even than I was at English, but I loved English more, which is why I’m now writing about it instead of doing someone’s taxes. Mathematics directs you to a basic principle: what you have minus what you spend equals what you have left. If what you spend always exceeds what you have, you can look forward to repeated visits from the repo man.

But I’m lousy at economics. Mathematics is a part of economics, but it seems to be only a small part. From my increasingly cynical vantage point, economics comprises policies for obfuscating the simple math. It develops new formulas: for instance, reckless tax cuts plus what we borrow from China, Japan, and oil exporters minus fiscal irresponsibility squared equals reelection! Terms like multiplication, division, subtraction — those I understand. But gross domestic product, trade deficits, Federal Reserve interest rates, stagflation — now you’ve lost me.

I.O.U.S.A. aims to be “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Economics,” though I think I might need “‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Economics’ for Dummies.” It tries to explain more than two centuries of economic policy in 85 minutes, which is like trying to fit the Atlantic Ocean in a teacup; it needs a sequel, a prequel, a spinoff, and a weekly TV series, and even all that might only be enough to cover the George W. Bush presidency, which, we learn, was both more catastrophic and less catastrophic than we thought it was. So you’ll forgive me if much of this review consists of a survey of what I know and don’t know.

Bush did not create the problem, only exacerbated it. During the last years of the Clinton presidency, fiscal discipline led to the nation’s first budget surpluses in decades, and the national debt had begun to slowly wind down, but during Bush’s eight years in office, the debt doubled from $4 trillion to $8 trillion. The Iraq War was part of the problem, but a relatively small part when compared to his aggressive tax cuts and Medicare Part D, which the nation couldn’t afford. The film doesn’t go into detail on Medicare Part D, so I looked it up. Part D, a prescription drug program, prohibits the government from negotiating prices and thus benefits no one more than the pharmaceutical companies, who can charge whatever they want while the government goes into hock paying for it. Former Congressman Billy Tauzin, who was instrumental in securing passage for the bill, took a seven-figure job for a pharmaceutical lobby immediately after retiring from Congress.

But I digress. It is easy to become sidetracked by outrage.

The subjects of the film are David Walker and Bob Bixby. Walker served as the Comptroller General of the United States from 1998 to 2008 and started his Fiscal Wake-Up Tour in 2005 to spread the word about the national debt, and Bixby is the director of the Concord Coalition, an organization that advocates fiscal responsibility. They’re unlikely heroes, but then so was Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth.

They present a message that is neither conservative nor liberal. The numbers don’t lie, and they have no politics; two plus two equals four on both sides of the aisle. The government is in debt. Almost half of that debt belongs to foreign countries, including burgeoning economic superpower China; our ability to dictate foreign policy is at risk if our government is dependent on foreign lenders to cover our losses. The next generation — of which I am a part — will be left with the bill.

I.O.U.S.A. was released in theaters on August 22, 2008. The DVD audio commentary was recorded in late December. In that time, the economy imploded, and in the months leading to the April 7, 2009 release of the DVD we have been faced with billions upon billions of dollars of government bailouts for the companies that got us into the mess in the first place. A feeling of helplessness sets in, because we know we cannot trust the financial institutions, but we need them to fix the problem because they’re the only ones who understand the language of their own malfeasance. Does that make you angry? It makes me angry. But again, I digress.

I.O.U.S.A. is a different film than it would be if it were made today, because the world is radically different since last August. It will be different six months from now, and six months after that. The film is not about the collapse of the financial market, per se. It’s about our country’s failure to save for a rainy day, and now it’s raining and the only way to get out of the hole is to keep digging. The current national debt is nearly $11.2 trillion. Currency is being printed to pay for the bailouts. Inflation may be the inevitable consequence, yet the recession rages on and unemployment continues to rise. That, I believe, is stagflation. See, I’m learning.

In the last few years, documentary film has emerged as the last bastion of true journalism; when I see films like No End in Sight, When the Levees Broke, Standard Operating Procedure, and the aforementioned Truth, I feel as though I’m experiencing a seismic event, something that should be the focus of every news broadcast, every debate, every conversation in public life but isn’t. A telling moment in I.O.U.S.A. reveals that a local affiliate’s nightly news bumped the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour for a puff piece about a robber who swallowed a ring. At some point, news organizations stopped believing viewers want to be told things that matter. As an electorate, what we don’t know we can’t do anything about, and with our fiscal health at critical mass, what we don’t know could kill us.