A Sobering Picture
Recently, on CBS’s "60 Minutes" the Comptroller General at the Government Accountability Office, David Walker painted a very sobering picture regarding the federal government's ability to meet its future obligations.
Walker explained that government entitlement spending is out of control and singled out the Medicare prescription drug bill passed by Congress as a totally irresponsible piece of legislation.
Congress knew the projections that the program would cost $400 billion over the next decade were inaccurate, when they voted for the bill. The true cost will be at least $1 trillion in the first decade and much more in following decades as our population grows older.
The politicians who get reelected by passing such incredibly shortsighted legislation will never have to answer to future generations, who are the real victims of the debts being incurred in their names.
David Walker claims our government can’t keep its promises for Social Security and Medicare, because it's too late to reformed our entitlement system. The official national debt figure is approaching $9 trillion. This merely reflects what the federal government owes in current debts on money already borrowed. It doesn’t reflect what the federal government has promised to pay millions of Americans in entitlement benefits down the road.
Allegedly, we can’t grow our way out of this problem through a prosperous economy that yields higher future tax revenues. By 2040 the entire federal budget will be consumed by Social Security and Medicare. Walker claims our only options would be cutting federal spending by about 60%, or doubling federal taxes.
Let’s start by bringing our troops home and save the 8.4 billion a month we’re spending in Iraq.
Next, eliminate the 90 thousand dollar FICA cap on Social Security deductions, we would be procuring significantly more money from the those earning over $250 thousand a year, as well as, from the more than 2 million millionaires and 415 billionaires in America.
Then, the 40 Senators that are millionaires could begin to address the problem by getting rid of the income tax loop holes for the very wealthy and stop subsidizing American companies that move to other countries.
Walker explained that government entitlement spending is out of control and singled out the Medicare prescription drug bill passed by Congress as a totally irresponsible piece of legislation.
Congress knew the projections that the program would cost $400 billion over the next decade were inaccurate, when they voted for the bill. The true cost will be at least $1 trillion in the first decade and much more in following decades as our population grows older.
The politicians who get reelected by passing such incredibly shortsighted legislation will never have to answer to future generations, who are the real victims of the debts being incurred in their names.
David Walker claims our government can’t keep its promises for Social Security and Medicare, because it's too late to reformed our entitlement system. The official national debt figure is approaching $9 trillion. This merely reflects what the federal government owes in current debts on money already borrowed. It doesn’t reflect what the federal government has promised to pay millions of Americans in entitlement benefits down the road.
Allegedly, we can’t grow our way out of this problem through a prosperous economy that yields higher future tax revenues. By 2040 the entire federal budget will be consumed by Social Security and Medicare. Walker claims our only options would be cutting federal spending by about 60%, or doubling federal taxes.
Let’s start by bringing our troops home and save the 8.4 billion a month we’re spending in Iraq.
Next, eliminate the 90 thousand dollar FICA cap on Social Security deductions, we would be procuring significantly more money from the those earning over $250 thousand a year, as well as, from the more than 2 million millionaires and 415 billionaires in America.
Then, the 40 Senators that are millionaires could begin to address the problem by getting rid of the income tax loop holes for the very wealthy and stop subsidizing American companies that move to other countries.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home