And I actually laughed (in a sad way) about the comment about the debt
owners being countries like Japan and China. That was also a big worry
during the Reagan years.
Something to remember is that during the Clinton years we actually
balanced the budget and paid back a chunk of debt, lowering the
national deficit for the first time in 25 years. While under Bush,
just this year he has pushed us to a record $521 billion deficit
forcing Congress to raise the national debt ceiling. In fact, if you
look back during the last 50 years, it is consistently under
Republican presidencies that have seen increases in the national debt
despite the ad hominem criticisms that Democrats are the ones who want
to spend willy nilly.
And if you want to look at line items, the defense budget is almost
the same as social security despite the fact that the military budgets
of the "axis of evil" are about 2% of ours even when added together.
That's less than the $8.8 billion we supposedly gave the Iraqi
provisional government that is now missing.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,129489,00.html The nearest
military spender to us, Russia, spends about 17% of us and they're an
ally.
With current social security and medicare funding, the retired
population is mostly living in poverty and has to choose between
medicine and meals. So even if we do have the military defend our way
of life, we have to ask what the overall quality of life is that we
are defending.
-Kevin
On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 12:32:54 -0400, Robert Munn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I just saw Joe Scarborough talking about his book last night. He and others want to get Americans focused on the details of legislative horse-trading. He talks about cutting out many pork programs that individually cost millions of dollars each year.
>
> Now, look at the number you quoted- $45 trillion- and explain to me how saving even a few billion a year makes any difference to our long term fiscal problems. If you look at the top line budget items in the Federal Budget, there are two line items that are going to sink us:
>
> 1. Social Security
> 2. Medicare
>
> These two entitlement programs need to be radically reformed if there is to be any hope for the fiscal stability of our country. None of that other stuff that Scarborough & co. complain about really matters. If you want to take action and get involved, write your represetatives to Congress and tell them you want these programs reformed.
>
>
>
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