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As long as people get their entitlement checks/credits from Uncle Sam, they just don't care.
Bring up reform and everyone says "Cut the other program, not mine".
With so many dependent on the government now it's going to be near impossible to take anything back.
In 1955, Eisenhower had a heart attack. His doctors sent him home to rest with a bottle of oxygen.Today, he would receive a triple by-pass, stents in his arteries, a pacemaker and a lifetime regime of cholesterol-reducing, blodd-thinning, pressure regulating drugs.
The eligibility age for Medicare has to change, over time.
It's so sad. Nothing will change. The very same people that are beneficiaries of all different forms of "entitlements" are the same people that can vote. The producers in this country (the people who are working and paying taxes, without drawing any type of benefit) are vastly out-numbered by the persons collecting entitlements. This gap will only continue to increase, thereby insuring that no reform or discussion occurs regarding our debt.
I suppose it is up to the states to work on entitlement reform, Lord knows Washington isn't touching that with a ten foot pole, they would lose their entire voting population!
Medicare and our whole entire health-care delivery system is a wreck, not Social Security. To lump SS in with medicare is ignoring the bigger picture. Having lived and worked in the DC area my whole life I'm even suspect of the amount stated what our military budget is. Ships to build cost billions and billions to maintain let alone fighter jets. Wars instituted, secret intel agency budgets etc. Billions spent on contractors, one huge money spending machine. But some oldy, whose days are numbered, collecting SS in which they paid for is breaking the bank because they're ill. I say BS.
This is a great visual. I think wht yr seeing is the ageing baby boomer rat going through the budgetary snake. After the BBs die off things will re-balance perhaps. But that is a very long view.
So this run-up is, I bet, a mix of medical cost inflation and demand due to ageing pop. needing more medical care. Could also mean more people are becoming eligible for these programs, too...not just old, but old enough AND poor enough to qualify.
Medicaid is based on poverty/income qualifications, so as people get poorer due to the weak economy and income stagnation/downward mobility you'd also see an increase, since more people become eligible.
Defense is a BIG part of the discretionary budget and squeezes other discretionary programs, so for that side of the budget it does have to be controlled. But that is not going to address this entitlements crisis.
These graphs do make me sick, but I would like to know how much of the entitlement increase in spending is funded vs. unfunded. It would be nice to know how much of the increase is due to unemployment, welfare, food stamps etc...
It's so sad. Nothing will change. The very same people that are beneficiaries of all different forms of "entitlements" are the same people that can vote. The producers in this country (the people who are working and paying taxes, without drawing any type of benefit) are vastly out-numbered by the persons collecting entitlements. This gap will only continue to increase, thereby insuring that no reform or discussion occurs regarding our debt.
I suppose it is up to the states to work on entitlement reform, Lord knows Washington isn't touching that with a ten foot pole, they would lose their entire voting population!
We need a Supreme Court that will rule that "entitlements" are unconstitutional federal spending and have them all abolished or sent back to the states where they can be unwound.
Location: In a Galaxy far, far away called Germany
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It is hard breaking to see this. These things can only be fixed one of two ways: A government who get their $h!t together and does something about working within a budget or an economic situation that leads to violence and the crumbling of a nation.
I wonder why we never see a liberal who is upset at the federal financial picture?
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