Another good article by John Phelan of the Center for the American Experiment has prompted this post. We all want to stick our heads in the ground and ignore the looming disaster that is the federal budget and debt pile. Just this week Social Security officials warned that the trust fund behind those benefits will run out of money in just a few years and the Medicare trust fund is in similar dire straits. Year after year we are running trillion dollar plus deficits, adding more debt at ever-higher interest rates. Paying that interest is one reason for the annual deficits. John lays this out in a post. Spending is the problem, not revenue. We cannot tax or grow our way out of this, although eliminating wealthy people’s tax dodges, like private foundations and bogus trusts, would help.
Drastic action is required now. Medicaid should be eliminated as a federal program and returned to the states with some funding. Medicare eligibility based on disability should be eliminated as should Social Security disability and those should similarly be returned to the states. Both Medicare and Social Security should be means-tested and wealthy people should pay their full cost. Taking these actions alone would likely almost eliminate the deficit. And the US has lots of land, buildings and other assets that it doesn’t use or need. Sales should be considered with all proceeds used to pay down some of the debt pile.
This may sound extreme, but we have to get the federal budget and debt situation under control or we will have economic chaos. (Phelan Post)
