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Ben Stein, during an interview at Brompton yesterday, says health care reform definitely will add to the federal deficit. |
BY JEFF BRANSCOME
Ben Stein, best known for a small role in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," talked about the economic crisis and other issues last night at the University of Mary Washington's Fredericksburg Forum.
Stein, an economist, has been a presidential speechwriter, actor, game-show host and filmmaker.
People filled Dodd Auditorium for Stein's appearance. He gave a speech and answered pre-written questions from the audience.
He said the recession is over for Wall Street but not for everybody else. Still, he said, it will eventually end.
"I would like for this to be your takeaway--we will get out of this somehow, we always do," Stein said.
In response to a question, he said the country would be in "serious, serious trouble" if the government hadn't bailed out banks.
"We have to have a functioning banking system, so we had to bail them out," he said.
And on a lighter note, he said his favorite job was his role as a boring teacher on "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." He even re-enacted the scene in which he calls roll and drones, "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller."
Stein sat down with The Free Lance-Star for an interview yesterday afternoon before his talk at UMW. Here are some of the questions and answers from that exchange.
Who is responsible for the economic downturn and who's responsible for fixing it?
I believe that this is the first recession in the history of the United States to have been caused not by a mistake of government monetary policy but by a gigantic error, or series of errors, in the private sector. Certainly, it's the first recession in the last 100 years to have been caused by a colossal series of blunders in the private sector and not by mistakes by the Federal Reserve or the Treasury. That being said, the only person or group that can rescue it is the government, and they are doing that to some extent, although it's not working perfectly. The government, I'm afraid, is going to have to keep on pouring liquidity in until there's just so much liquidity in the banks that they actually start to lend some to the ordinary citizen.
What's your take on the economic impact of any health care reform?
It's inconceivable that it will be budget neutral. It's simply inconceivable. That's just a political fantasy. It's inconceivable that the president or the government or any combination of those two can cut anywhere near enough from the Medicare system to make a meaningful impact on neutralizing the cost of Obamacare. It would be very very wrong for the government to try to cut medical costs for Medicare substantially. Why should doctors be paid less? Why should seniors get less medical care? What's the ethical reason or justification for that? So I think the health care costs will greatly add to the deficit, and the deficit is getting to be so large that it's very worrisome, it's extremely worrisome, to be running deficits of this size. We don't know what the magnitude is that would cause the economy to buckle, but we just know that we don't ever want to get close to it.
How have you been received by college audiences in the wake of your documentary, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"? (The Internet Movie Database describes the film as an examination of academic freedom, which Stein says does not exist when it comes to the debate over intelligent design.)
Very well. It's interesting. Many fewer colleges (mostly in the Northeast) have invited me to speak since that movie came out. But I have only gotten one hostile question ever on any campus about that and that was a question that was easily answered. But the biology or microbiology or whatever it is departments at some schools have definitely expressed hostility.
What advice do you have for soon-to-be college graduates?
One, consider joining the military. Two, consider joining law enforcement, where there still are jobs. Three, consider joining the federal government, where there are lots of jobs. Four, consider going to graduate school, but bear in mind that the palmy days, when there were jobs for everyone at good wages, are gone and probably for quite some time. After a recession of this magnitude, hiring will stay anemic for quite some time, especially at high wages.
Was Shaquille O'Neal really holding you up by your head in a commercial?
He was lifting up my whole body. What he did in the advertisement--and in real life, too, this wasn't a camera trick--he lifted me up above the basket so that I could drop the ball in the basket. He just picked me up like as if he was picking up a book. I suspect that to him I'm about as heavy as that book is to me. He just lifted me up, and I was just held up above the basketball hoop and dropped the basketball into it. It was amazing. He just picked me up like I was a feather.
Jeff Branscome: 540/374-5402
Email: jbranscome@freelancestar.com
