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| Erskin Bowles (left) Alan Simpson (right) |
One of President Obama’s debt commissioners, Erskine Bowles, boldly declared recently, “The era of deficit denial is over.” You wish. Never have more naive words ever been spoken. There seems to be two path choices for America’s financial future. One can be described as “pathetic” and the other can be described as completely “inadequate.” Many veteran observers rolled their eyes when Obama announced his “Debt Commission.” It was as if President Obama thought well-informed Americans did not already know its elected officials were gutless. We hear so much about the never-ending political posturing process known as, “You go first,” on reforming entitlement programs.
Everyone in Washington is afraid to touch the third rails of politics…..Social Security, Medicare, and to a lesser extent, Medicaid. Political scientists reached a consensus long ago that the smartest governing technique in American politics is to ignore the basic laws of finance. And for the time being, the world financial markets are allowing Americans to get away with chronic recklessness.
When Medicare was passed decades ago politicians chose to ignore the effects on demand for products and services that would occur as a result of making health care virtually FREE to anyone 65 and older, once they paid a small deductible. Politicians also ignored the future age demographics in the country. As a result, the amount of national treasure gobbled up by Medicare recipients in 2011 reflects the unintended consequences of creating incentives for seniors and those who market to them, to consume to their heart’s content regardless of the cost to the country, or their personal means.
Medicare product and service hucksters have proliferated, opening up shop on every street corner and advertising things that are "FREE" virtually 24 hours a day. Nothing is free. People taking all their healthcare bills to Medicare should be told the people they elected made promises that were going to be IMPOSSIBLE to keep. And young people paying Medicare taxes into a system that has grossly over-promised should demand that those promises be modified now before the entire country goes bankrupt.
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1 comments:
If and when the world's reserve currency is no longer the dollar, Americans can be promised to experience significant changes in their standard of living. These changes will have financially catastrophic like implications of unknown and unanticipated proportions. The outcome of the standoff between state governments and government worker unions will have far reaching consequences. The fix will be much more painful than most are ready, willing and able to endure. At that point budget cuts will not be an option but instead the unavoidable net affect of massive state government financial collapse. Take a side before a side takes you.
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