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Unsustainable government…
By sage of monticello | July 31, 2007
From Robert Samuelson’s article, When Silence Isn’t Golden:
Consider the outlook. From 2005 to 2030, the 65-and-over population will nearly double to 71 million; its share of the population will rise to 20 percent from 12 percent. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—programs that serve older people—already exceed 40 percent of the $2.7 trillion federal budget. By 2030, their share could hit 75 percent of the present budget, projects the Congressional Budget Office. The result: a political impasse.
The 2030 projections are daunting. To keep federal spending stable as a share of the economy would mean eliminating all defense spending and most other domestic programs.. To balance the budget with existing programs at their present economic shares would require, depending on assumptions, tax increases of 30 percent to 50 percent—or budget deficits could quadruple. A final possibility: cut retirement benefits by increasing eligibility ages, being less generous to wealthier retirees or trimming all payments.
Yesterday, when Rudy Giuliani called the Democrats promoters of a “nanny government” he was right. But we need more than just words to solve our budgetary promises which stem from politicians’ over-eagerness to please constituencies who want everything paid for by someone else and done for them by someone else.
What we need to dialogue, leadership, and values. Things that, as Samuelson points out, everyone seems to be sidestepping.
Topics: conservativism, politcal dialogue, welfare, liberalism |
