Both the federal debt and 2012 budget are the subjects of hot debate, and rightly so. Unspeakable consequences loom if the problems they pose are not confronted, and soon. However, the words and deeds of Washington's elite suggests that most of them are, instead, playing politics. Rather than forthrightly dealing with these serious issues they seek to score political points as they Jockey for position for the 2012 elections. The spectacle we are witnessing is a disgusting display of how "not to be statesmen." The great statesmen in our nation's history had principles and guts. They dealt with tough issues regardless of the political consequences. Today these characteristics are hard to find in the halls of governments at the local, state or federal level.
The entitlements component of the debate serves as a case in point. Many, maybe even most, Americans do not realize that since President Johnson instituted his "Great Society" in the mid-1960s reliance on the government for income has steadily increased. Two of his many Great Society programs were Medicare and Medicaid. They were politically popular when implemented and remain so today. But there is a downside. They are enormously expensive and both have in recent years balooned in size and cost. As reported by CNBC, a TrimTabsInvestment Research study reveals that government payouts from social welfare programs "make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the US population." That means one-third of all US income is taxpayer funded government social welfare; "not" income earned by workers. The CNBC reporter highlighted the consequences of this trend by noting that to merely return to pre-recession government pay out levels, either worker incomes would have to increase by 35 percent or social welfare benefits would have to decline 23 percent. Neither outcome is even a remote possibility given the sluggish economy and the massive baby boomer generation now entering their retirement years. Meanwhile both political parties talk big but do little, or nothing. Where are the statesmen?
To put a fine point on the matter consider that the US Office of Management and Budget tells us that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid alone will consume 42% of the entire 2011 federal budget. Since there is no mechanism in place to control the costs of these and all other federal entitlement programs their share of the budget will increase every year into the foreseeable future. Neither worker contributions nor taxes collected cover their current costs, let alone future costs. These are the kinds of fiscal problems that produced the financial crises and subsequent bailouts of the governments ofGreece, Ireland and Portugal with at least three other European countries close behind. Similar financial disaster looms for us unless statesmen step up to deal with the issues.
That leads us to the debt. As of this writing our national debt had topped $14.3 trillion. We got into this mess because of excessive government spending on all manner of things. On 23 Jan 2011 Senator Kent Conrad revealed that three items (entitlement programs, defense and debt payments) consume about 84 percent of the entire US budget. That means everything else our government spends is only 16 percent of the budget. To make matters worse taxes collected do not even come close to covering expenses. So, just to pay operating costs and interest on the debt our government borrows 4 billion dollars PER DAY. Put another way, that is $40,000 PER Second. Who covers these loans? American taxpayers, of course! Meanwhile, our would be statesmen diddle.
Representative Paul Ryan's dramatic proposal for the 2012 budget has caused quite a stir, placing him in the bulls eye of the political left and striking fear of lost elections in the hearts of some of his timid Republican colleagues. But it was just such a proposal that was necessary to get the ball rolling towards resolving our government's out of control spending and rapidly escalating debt. Some say Ryan's suggestions are way over the top; others say they do not go far enough. Either way it was a gutty proposal. I say, good for you, Representative Ryan! You have the makings of a statesman. Are there any others out there?
George Burns
Loysville
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