The real fiscal cliff is our
unsustainable welfare state which, depending upon your personal preferences, is
already bankrupt or will be no later than 2030.
Unfortunately, as a result of an aging population [too few babies and
too little immigration] and surging health care costs, our welfare system has become
unaffordable. The average Medicare
couple pays $109,000 into the program and gets $343,000 in benefits out. The statistical you and me – American Greeks –
will end the political career of anybody that tries to fix this or even tell us
the truth about it.
·
Government debt
as a percentage of gross domestic product is around 74 percent now. Interest on that debt for 2012 was $360 billion. The fiscal cliff deal on the table at the
moment would raise about $60 billion a year in new taxes.
·
Under current
spending, debt will approach a ruinous 90 percent of G.D.P. in a decade and a
cataclysmic 247 percent of G.D.P. 30 years from now.
·
By 2025,
entitlement spending and debt payments are projected to suck up all federal
revenue.
·
According to the
International Monetary Fund, meeting America’s long-term obligations will
require an immediate and permanent 35 percent increase in all taxes and a 35
percent cut in all benefits.
What part of this do we not
understand? The nation is being run by
Bible-thumpers, libertarian anarchists and progressive, anti-capitalist commies. If you like one of our political Parties or
hate one more than another, then you are the moron.
My generation is certainly the
“Greediest Generation” and my children’s generation seems to be falling right
in behind. We are going to have to wake
up folks.
Another
Fiscal Flop
By
David Brooks
Published:
December 31, 2012, NYT
Is
it sad or hopeful to see the ever optimistic Brooks write this column? The one place where I disagree with him
regards his forgiveness of Boehner and Obama, and by extension the other
political leadership. The left wants to
run the country by referendum but Americans don’t; we expect our representatives to go to
Washington and do the right thing. At a
minimum, any leader should be able to tell us the truth – most especially a
President now free of personal political consequences for life. These are the protectors of the middle
class? Also derelict are the media, main
stream, political and commentariat combined.
We need some unvarnished truth from these folks.
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