Marc, we seriously need entitlement reform. It will be mathematically impossible to ever balance the budget again without it.
Obama has not only completely ignored this fact, his one and only domestic achievement was to add an entirely new entitlement to our budgetary load!
No, he gets no slack from me.
Sorry.
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A drop in the bucket...most of the money is being WASTED in defense.
Where's your fight against that?
Actually, our entitlement spending is almost exactly the same amount as our revenues. It is much higher than defense spending. If you don't believe me, read the federal budget.
After we pay for non-discretionary spending (entitlements), there is nothing left over for defense or roads or bridges or teachers. That is why I scoff at the sheer gall it takes for Obama to say he will have savings to spend on these things after the war is ended.
As for cutting defense spending, I am somewhere between the Libertarian position of shrinking our military down to the size of a cub scout troop and whatever amorphous undefined position the Democratic party has.
I think stating an arbitrary percentage Defense spending must be cut is foolhardy. That shit used to annoy the hell out of me when I was active duty. "Cut your training by 10 percent to save money." They did not care if cutting training by 10 percent would affect our readiness.
Is there waste in Defense spending? Oh, hell yeah there is. The stories I could tell you!
But we need to focus less on numbers and more on doing things that make sense.
That is why when I say we need to cut entitlement spending, I don't give a specific amount. Instead I argue that we are living longer and therefore must work longer, and should raise the Social Security and Medicare eligibility age and index it to either life expectancy or 6 percent of the population, which is where Social Security was when it was created. Right now over 13 percent of the population is over 65, and rising.
Raising the age to 70 would save a lot of money in outlays. How much? I don't know, but it would be a metric shit ton.
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