The budget debate’s central reality is that federal retirement programs, led by Social Security and Medicare, are crowding out most other government spending. Until we openly recognize and discuss this, it will be impossible to have a “balanced approach” — to use one of President Obama’s favorite phrases. It’s the math: In fiscal 2012, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and civil service and... [more]
The budget debate’s central reality is that federal retirement programs, led by Social Security and Medicare, are crowding out most other government spending. Until we openly recognize and discuss this, it will be impossible to have a “balanced approach” — to use one of President Obama’s favorite phrases. It’s the math: In fiscal 2012, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and civil service and military retirement cost $1.7 trillion, about half the budget.
Liberals drive this process by treating Social Security and Medicare as sacrosanct. Do not touch a penny of benefits; these programs are by definition progressive; all recipients are deserving and needy. Only a few brave liberals complain that this dogma threatens programs for the non-aged poor. “None of us wants to impose new burdens on vulnerable seniors,” write economists Harry J. Holzer of Georgetown University and Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution in The Post. But “for how long will we continue to sacrifice investments in our nation’s children and youth ... to spend more and more on the aged?”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/robert-samuelson-a-dishonest-budget-debate/2013/03/17/18fdb79e-8d8b-11e2-9f54-f3fdd70acad2_story.html?hpid=z2[less]
Response by needsadvice
about 13 years ago
Posts: 607
Member since: Jul 2010
Social security is a tax that people had removed from their paychecks in their working years. Calling it an entitlement is ridiculous, it's the recipient's money, not the government's.
Lumping it in with the military budget for this article is a bit manipulative. The military is the largest single expenditure of our government, and it uses a full 4.8% of our GDP. (chart comparing ludicrous US spending to other countries: http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/06/military-spending)
I don't think we need another $40 million dollar plane that some 22 year old kid can wreck, or multi-Trillion dollar war (against whom? some goat herders?). The SS talk is just a distraction from the real issue; an unnecessarily large military budget.
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Response by NYCMatt
about 13 years ago
Posts: 7523
Member since: May 2009
needsadvice, don't be so naive.
Multi-trillion dollar wars aren't fights *against* people or nations (per se); they are created and orchestrated purely for the benefit of the military-industrial-banking complex.
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Response by greensdale
about 13 years ago
Posts: 3804
Member since: Sep 2012
NYCMatt, you and C0lumbia C0unty often sound very alike.
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Response by columbiacounty
about 13 years ago
Posts: 12708
Member since: Jan 2009
greensburg...you and huntersdale and hfscomm1 and hundreds of others are alike.
Social security is a tax that people had removed from their paychecks in their working years. Calling it an entitlement is ridiculous, it's the recipient's money, not the government's.
Lumping it in with the military budget for this article is a bit manipulative. The military is the largest single expenditure of our government, and it uses a full 4.8% of our GDP. (chart comparing ludicrous US spending to other countries: http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/06/military-spending)
I don't think we need another $40 million dollar plane that some 22 year old kid can wreck, or multi-Trillion dollar war (against whom? some goat herders?). The SS talk is just a distraction from the real issue; an unnecessarily large military budget.
needsadvice, don't be so naive.
Multi-trillion dollar wars aren't fights *against* people or nations (per se); they are created and orchestrated purely for the benefit of the military-industrial-banking complex.
NYCMatt, you and C0lumbia C0unty often sound very alike.
greensburg...you and huntersdale and hfscomm1 and hundreds of others are alike.
hundreds and hundreds