My latest in the American News:
At the recent national conventions both political parties stressed issues they think will help them win votes, but there is one issue that both parties ignored: entitlement spending. That might be the biggest issue facing America.
According to economist Robert Samuelson, three programs - Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security - currently represent 40 percent of all federal spending. According to the Congressional Budget Office, by 2030 these programs will take up a full 70 percent of all federal spending.
David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general, reports that America currently has $53 trillion in unfunded promises represented in our entitlement programs. As comptroller general, Walker was the government's top accountant. Now he is waging a battle to convince Americans to take seriously the enormous burden we are leaving our children and grandchildren.
Walker says that the greatest threat to the United States is not a terrorist “hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan” but “our own fiscal responsibility.” If we do nothing by 2040, our government will have money to spend on nothing else but entitlements and interest on the debt. That means no money for defense, homeland security, roads, education or anything else.
The rise in health care spending along with an aging population creates obligations in the tens of trillions of dollars that the United States cannot afford. Congress and President Bush made matters worse by passing the Medicare prescription drug benefit, a bill Walker calls “the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s.” To pay for the drug bill, Walker says the United States must immediately invest trillions of dollars. How much money have we invested? Zero.
The situation is masked by the slick accounting of the federal government. Congress and the president use the Social Security surplus to mask the real deficit even though they have actually spent that surplus for their and the voters' immediate gratification.
Walker has teamed with Peter Peterson, former commerce secretary, to raise the awareness of the American people to this dire situation. They have created a documentary film entitled “I.O.U.S.A.” to spread the message. Clips from the film and other media appearances by Walker are easily found on that the film's Web site, www.iousathemovie.com, and on YouTube.
Our major party candidates stressed, at their conventions, the need for uniting and putting country first. Both candidates claimed to represent a new politics that rises above partisanship and ideology, aiming simply to do what is best for the American people.
Yet neither candidate promises real reform. Barack Obama, in fact, favors a national health care program that would heap mountains of debt on top of the already enormous sum. John McCain fights against pork barrel spending, but the truth is that this kind of spending represents a miniscule amount of the federal deficit. As Walker points out, we could get rid of all waste in the Defense Department, for example, and it would have virtually no impact on long term deficit projections.
While McCain voted against the prescription drug bill as a budget buster, truth is during the course of the campaign both candidates have been conspicuously silent about entitlement reform.
The reason why is obvious. Americans have come to depend on the government to free us from responsibility for our own well-being while passing on the cost to future generations.
Any candidate who makes a serious proposal for reforming entitlements will be denounced as unfeeling and heartless. So candidates promise even more spending in an attempt to win votes.
Luckily, most of will be dead before the bill comes due.
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