Pursuing Fiscal Discipline and Energy Abundance: Jonathan Williams on The Hugh Hewitt Show
"It's funny that the left tries to kill ALEC, and yet then they try to emulate ALEC at the very same time."
Hugh Hewitt spoke with ALEC President and Chief Economist Jonathan Williams about fiscal discipline, energy abundance, and how organizations on the Left are attempting to emulate ALEC.
The conversation began with Hewitt asking about the state of the bond market and how states are tackling the issues of debt management. Williams relayed that policymakers should proactively tackle debt issues rather than waiting for the bond market to enforce discipline through rising interest rates.
“What state policymakers need to do is raise their voices like we have with ALEC efforts,” Williams noted, saying, “Let’s enforce some real fiscal rules at the federal level, like we have at the state level, where almost all of the states have balanced budget requirements. There’s lots of great state stories, and you know, it’s really time to take action today to address this debt issue because it’s been a bipartisan issue going back decades now.”
Hewitt then discussed that there was ALEC envy among progressives in trying to copy the success of ALEC as an organization in the realm of policy solutions. Williams attributed the success of ALEC as an effective organization to the leadership of CEO Lisa B. Nelson, the genuine friendships and shared goals among its members, contrasting this with what he describes as a “coalition of the coerced” on the left.
“We built a much more effective organization coming out of that,” he explained, “but it’s funny that the left tries to kill ALEC, and yet then they try to emulate ALEC at the very same time.”
The conversation then covered the ALEC Energy Academy in Kentucky, which focused on building energy abundance to combat high costs and unreliable supply. Williams noted the need for increasing energy supply to meet current demand in order to ensure affordability and reliability with prices.
“It’s not rocket surgery,” he emphasized. “As we say often with some of these commonsense ALEC policy solutions, it’s about increasing supply and continuing to meet the demand where it is today, and that will hit this affordability challenge that we all face today.”