A little perspective from the debt commission:
The commission leaders said that, at present, federal revenue is fully consumed by three programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. “The rest of the federal government, including fighting two wars, homeland security, education, art, culture, you name it, veterans — the whole rest of the discretionary budget is being financed by China and other countries,” [Alan] Simpson said.
Three programs — Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — consume 100 percent of federal revenue, and everything else is paid for with borrowed money. This is why we cannot balance the budget by cutting military spending, foreign aid, food stamps, etc. There is not going to be a serious project to address our deficit/debt problem without deep, painful entitlement reform, and the longer we wait to admit that fact and get going on it, the worse it is going to be.
So, who’s gonna grab that third rail? George W. Bush tried and got hammered — an example that few if any in Washington are eager to follow.
And Paul Ryan made a legitimate effort to discuss a plan and his own party wouldn't give him the time of day. Which just goes to show that the GOP is not significantly more interested than the Dems in addressing the problem.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo basically, it's not just one, but three elephants in the room. The floorboards are bending and snapping all around us, and Washington still can't admit what the problem is. Much less muster the courage to suggest a solution.
Great. Just great.
As someone around these parts likes to say, we are doomed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, if it isn't repealed, Obamacare will make this look like "the good old days."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJEM - You hit the nail on the head. The party at large is almost as bad as the Democrats because it can't get out of its own way when its few statesmen try to come up with solutions. Tim, MRindle - government plays so many games to prop up its deficit and the lie that is its balance sheet that by any other standard, we would already be considered insolvent.
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe worst part: these are among the fastest growing parts of the Federal budget.
Three common manipulative practices employed by gov't (inflation, currency devaluation, taxes) have no hope of eliminating the deficit (forget the debt) without wrecking the country. And GDP growth would need to be at levels never seen.
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