I tend to be a pretty optimistic person. But events of the past few weeks leave me with very little to be positive about regarding the future of our Republic. (And yes, it's a Republic, Not a Democracy. Look it up) The debt ceiling has been raised, yet no one who crafted the deal seems particularly happy about the arrangement. Well, neither am I. This elevation of the debt ceiling allows the government to borrow even more money it doesn't have without serious spending cuts. Currently the federal government borrow 40 cents of every dollar it spends. Go back and re-read that last sentence. Go ahead - I'll wait here. If that isn't frightening to you then you may not quite understand the implications. Imagine borrowing 40 cents of every dollar your household spends. How long could that go on without experiencing serious financial repercussions? Exactly. But that's what we're doing to satiate our appetite for federal spending. The annual federal budget is about $3.7 trillion. We borrow via the sale of treasury bills about $1.3 trillion.
Entitlement account for the largest share of that $3.7 trillion. And for many elected officials - those entitlements are "off the table" because they don't want to alienate a specific constituancy - the elderly, families with kids in school, unions, etc. (Apparently they're not concerned with alienting the constituancy that will actually have to pay for those entitlements - the next two generations because they'll be long gone by then). Thomas Jefferson said that each generation should pass a debt free nation on to the next. Yeah. Good luck with that. That ship has sailed and is on it's way to sinking.
Fixing the problem and not kicking it down the road would require telling the American people things they probably don't want to hear. Within the next 10 years our debt may match our Gross Domestic Product. If you're guessing that that's not a good thing - you're correct. Move ahead two spaces but don't collect $200. because we don't have it. Increasing taxes upon the rich seems to be the target du' jour. I only wish we had enough rich people to pay for the debt as some people think. But the truth is we don't. Not even close. In fact if ALL the wealth of everyone who makes over $250,000 were confiscated by the government - it would only be enough money to run the government for 3 months. Everytime the eggheads in Washington crow about saving $10 billion just remember, that's about 24 hours of federal spending. It's that bad. Federal spending has increased 39% in the last 3 years. Are you 39% better off?
The solution is bitter medicine. Medicare has to be restructured completely in the near future. It is by far the biggest chunk of the budget & has unfunded liablities of $33 trillion. Tinkering around the edges wont cut it. Social Security isn't quite as bad off but it's close. People are living much longer than the life expectancy of 65 when the program was initiated. That means people are collecting for a much longer period than the program was ever designed for. The retirement age must be raised and benefits trimmed - and soon or there wont be anything available for future generations. As it stand now - we only have IOU's in the form of Treasury bills in the Social Security fund. It was drained of actual cash long ago. Like most Ponzi schemes, you had to be there at the beginning to get your money.
Since the President says everyone must sacrifice, I assume he means everyone. That means trimming Medicaid entitlements and other programs the federal government never was intended to enact. (Read the 10th Ammendment) When the ailment is life threatening, the medicine must be strong. But don't worry.
None of this is going to happen.
Why? Because most politicians vote according to the wishes of their constituants so they can get re-elected. And who's going to vote for somebody who levels this truth at them? It's not a very pleasant truth. Certainly not one most people want to hear much less have to deal with. But facts are stubborn things and the math is pretty simple. So enjoy the ride as much as you can. America is doomed to flame out all because our greed for eating at the government trough couldn't be satiated. Not because we didn't pay enough in taxes. We just assumed someone else was going to pay the bulk of our benefits. Someone who could afford to pay more than us. And we assumed that those grand fellows and ladies in Washington we elected must be so much brighter than the rest of us. Surely they have it all figured out, right? Yeah, they've got it figured out alright. Invoke class warfare. Keep factions fighting with each other. Claim the "other guys" don't care about you. Maybe no one will notice you're giving them sugar cookie treats that their kids & grandkids will be paying for.
America could never be conquored by a foreign army. Instead it will die at it's own hands. Not with the bang of a cannon or thrust of a bayonette. It will wither and succomb under it's own financial suicide. The funny thing is - most of us saw it coming. But nobody wanted to arrange an intervention.
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