A very interesting proposal from a diverse ideological group:
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2008/0331_fiscal_future/0331_fiscal_future.pdf
Taking Back Our Fiscal Future
Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by KenH, Mar 31, 2008.
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"Congress and the president enact explicit long-term budgets for Medicare, Medicaid, and
Social Security that are sustainable, set limits on automatic spending growth, and reduce
the relatively favorable budgetary treatment of these programs compared with other
types of expenditures.'
SS is a smoke screen that is fixable by eliminating the cap and raising the retirement age as life span raises. It never was intended to provide a good retirement. Why doesn't the govt ever warn about the Army going broke? There is nothing special about SS. The Treasury will write any check that Congress orders it to write.
Medicare and medicaid are moral issues. Are the taxpayers obligated to pay to extend human life as along as it is technically possible?
It is the war that is breaking the country, not the helping of the poor people. -
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Well, I don't agree with Billwald much..if ever. While it is the responsibility of Christians to promote life and welfare, the a U.S. Constitutional government may not have that burden. Billwald is incorrect that the war is breaking us relative to SS, Medicare, etc. Those programs were going broke long before Iraq, Afghan, etc., because of fiscal mismanagement.
I think the report's summary is telling. Is it me or do bullet points one and three seem a bit contradictory?
"• [FONT=Georgia,Georgia]Congress and the president enact explicit long-term budgets for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that are sustainable, set limits on automatic spending growth, and reduce the relatively favorable budgetary treatment of these programs compared with other types of expenditures.[/FONT]
• The programs be reviewed on a regular schedule by the Social Security and Medicare Trustees or the Congressional Budget Office to determine whether they will remain within budgeted amounts.
• Significant long-term deviations from budgeted amounts trigger automatic adjustments in benefits, premiums, provider payments, or other revenues. These adjustments could only be over-ridden by an explicit vote of Congress and acceptance by the president. "
IOW, we should have firm budgets, but let's open the door for deviations that would trigger adjustments. That seems to be Washington's way. "We're not going to change this...unless we change it"
That said, the basic premise - that the "autopilot" we have SS, Medicare and Medicaid on is killing these programs - is well taken and worth saying. We need to make some hard calls to ensure fiscal health to our nation. I don't know that I agree with some of the biases of the report, but I don't see how anyone could disagree with the proposal's thesis.
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Paying taxes is not charity. -
Revmitchell Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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The medical costs for the last two or three years of my father's life cost the taxpayers more than his total gross pay in his entire life.
Don't think any hospital charges less than $1,000/ day for room and board. ICU, $10,000/day
I probably made a $million total in wages over my working career. How many millions a year should the taxpayers be willing to pay to keep me alive?
A person who doesn't have any reason to lie about it says that once a month he goes to a clinic and gets one pill. He then gets a bill for $10,000 which he throws away. A month later he gets a bill for $1,000 marked "paid in full." he doesn't pay anything.
How many $1000/month pills can the taxpayers afford? -