Good piece today from Newsweek's Robert Samuelson, via Real Clear Politics:
Whatever the case, the major causes of the budget blowout are
well-known: an aging population and rapid increases in health spending.
In 2000, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- the main programs
providing income and health care for the 65 and over population --
totaled nearly 8 percent of GDP. In 2020, CBO projects that will reach
almost 12 percent of GDP. But the deeper source of our predicament is a
self-indulgent political culture that avoids a rigorous discussion of
government's role.
Everyone favors benefits and opposes burdens (taxes). Republicans
want to cut taxes without cutting spending. Democrats want to increase
spending without increasing taxes, except on the rich. The differences
between the parties are shades of gray. Hardly anyone asks the hard
questions of who doesn't need benefits, which programs are expendable
and what taxes might cover remaining deficits.
A major discussion must take place on the role of government. It is the conservative's job to take reigns of this argument. Ronald Reagan won two landslides by maintaining that government was not the solution to our problems, but the cause. Imagine a Reagan-like President, plus a Congress of like-minded folk. You could begin to undo what has been done to us.
Obama would make matters worse. He talks about controlling
"entitlement" spending (mainly Social Security and Medicare) but hasn't
done so. He's proposing just the opposite. His health care proposal
would increase federal spending. He says he will "pay for" the added
outlays with tax increases or other spending cuts, but what people
forget is that every penny of this "payment" could be used (and should
be) to close the existing long-term deficit -- not raise future
spending and taxes.
Amen to that.
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