|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
One Reporter's Opinion – Is U.S. Nearly Bankrupt? George Putnam It is this reporter's opinion that our federal spending is completely out of control. The U.S. budget was already badly battered, and even before Katrina and Rita and the other natural disasters, Uncle Sam already owed $8 trillion! Federal outlays had increased by approximately 25 percent since George W. took office.
Not only was Uncle Sam several hundred billion dollars short of what he needed to keep Social Security afloat and make interest payments on the national debt, but after four years the million-dollar-an-hour war in the Middle East has cost $250 billion and, according to some experts, is on target to drain over $1 trillion from taxpayers over the next five years.
The nation's $8 trillion debt is rising $600 billion a year, and without major budget cuts or tax increases, it could reach $11.2 trillion by 2010. The interest alone would cost about $560 billion. Story Continues Below
As an example of where we're going, only three months after enactment, the ten-year price tag of the Medicare prescription drug entitlement skyrocketed 35 percent, to $534 billion. If Medicare grows only 1 percent faster than the economy, it would cost $2.6 trillion in 2050, after adjusting for inflation – the size of today's entire federal budget.
Prescription drug coverage under Medicare was originally projected to cost $400 billion over ten years. Now the estimate is $720 billion.
And with the oldest baby boomers reaching age 62 in 2008, the number of those covered by Social Security is expected to increase from 47 million today to 69 million in 2020.
Who will pay for all of this? OUR CHILDREN, THEIR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN ...?
We haven't even discussed the $45 trillion in "unfunded obligations," whatever they may be. How will the youngsters of 2005, the U.S. workforce of 2040, manage to pay off what Uncle Same is today borrowing in their name? One estimate: Income taxes will need to be raised by 250 percent to meet all current U.S. obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits.
Of course, Uncle Sam could always resort to a monetary trick employed throughout history by spendthrift nations approaching their economic deathbeds: Print tons of cash and pay off debts with truckloads of nearly worthless paper.
My friend, currency expert Andrew Gause, says that according to the Government Accounting Office, every woman, man and child living in the U.S. is currently obligated to pay $145,000 to make good on Uncle Sam's financial obligations.
Alice Rivlin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office and co-author of the book "Restoring Fiscal Sanity," believes it will take an economic scare such as another stock market crash to spur effective action. Her co-author, Isabel Sawhill, says the growing gap between what the government takes in and what it spends is like a "category 6 fiscal hurricane."
"If left unchecked, our fiscal pressures will lead to higher interest rates, lower wages, shrinking pensions, and higher taxes for today's young people. Not to mention slower economic growth, less savings, plunging stock and bond prices and recession," according to U.S.A. Today.
Do we really want to lower the living standards of future generations? That's exactly what we do when we allow Uncle Sam to spend the money he doesn't have.
Of course, there are some who say our U.S. economy is strong and our debts are minor compared to our country's production capability. Yet others say we are on the verge of bankruptcy and in danger of becoming a "Third World debtor nation." Time will tell, but time is very short. And unless we take drastic action NOW and put a freeze on total federal spending with a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, it'll spell disaster.
"If we don't put the brakes on now, our grandchildren will be paying 75 percent income tax or they'll be buying loaves of bread with thousand-dollar bills," says my friend Andrew Gause.
It's time to halt runaway spending. Anybody who says we can grow our way out of this problem would fail to pass Math 101.
And let's not let politics get in the way. It's not a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or "grass-growers'" problem; it's just plain common sense: You can't spend more than you make.
Related Links:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0815774915/104-8800296-4993528?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0965658937/104-8800296-4993528?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0965658902/104-8800296-4993528?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance
Editor's note:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Print Page 
Forward Page 
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2009 NewsMax.Com |