The answer is, yes, I do want to bless my daughter with a country that has programs to take care of the least fortunate, that helps ensure a social safety net for retirement, that provides health care for the rich and poor.
Health care is the tough one. That is going to require a whole lot of work. Social Security? Really not in bad shape. I know you think otherwise, Robert, but I can keep pointing to statistics that show otherwise and plans that adequately ensure the solvency of Social Security for 75 years. As for the deficit in general, yes, it is a problem, though people have a tendency to treat the subject unfairly. I don't know whether it is out of ignorance or whether it is brazen political hackery, but people tend to toss short term deficit spending in with long term deficit spending. There are spending items like unemployment insurance extension and the stimulus bill that add to the deficit, but they add to the short term deficit. As the economy recovers from its nadir and tax revenues increase again, the proportional effect of the short term deficit additions become much much smaller because it was a one time expenditure. Then there are long term deficit additions, like tax cuts. A tax cut adds to the deficit regardless of the health of the economy and it doesn't just do it once, it does it every year that the program is in effect. We need to get our economy going and then focus on the bigger, long term structural items like Medicare, tax structure and defense spending. People who focus just on "the deficit" and treat unemployment insurance extensions just like the soon to expire tax cuts are just trying to pull the wool over people's eyes because the issues are fundamentally different and not at all equivalent. Judah On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 9:01 AM, Robert Munn <[email protected]> wrote: > > The salient question for us (and more importantly, for our children > and grandchildren) is why the country should move from paying 18% of > GDP in taxes to 26%+ in taxes to pay for the retiree welfare state. I > don't want to saddle my children with that burden, do you? > > > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704738404575347302831199046.html > > --- > The fact is that rapidly increasing spending will cause 100% of rising > long-term deficits. Over the past 50 years, tax revenues have deviated > little from their 18% of gross domestic product (GDP) average. Despite > a temporary recession-induced dip, CBO projects that even if all Bush > tax cuts are extended and the AMT is patched, tax revenues will > rebound to 18.2% of GDP by 2020èlightly above the historical average. > They will continue growing afterwards. > > Spending謡hich has averaged 20.3% of GDP over the past 50 years謡on't > remain as stable. Using the budget baseline deficit of $13 trillion > for the next decade as described above, CBO figures show spending > surging to a peacetime record 26.5% of GDP by 2020 and also rising > steeply thereafter. > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:323637 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
