I want your comments! Entitlements our doom? What are your thoughts?

Let me be clear. I'm partly a fan of entitlement programs. I think that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid do have their benefits and I believe the security and safety nets they provide are of the utmost importance when it comes to protecting our economy, society and those that rely on these and other entitlement programs. Yet over the past two decades, these social "promises" that have been made are starting to strangle the very fabric of our economy and government as a whole. As of today, the underfunded portions of these liabilities (the amount we have promised but haven't paid for) are as follows:

1. Social Security - $15.0 Trillion
2. Medicare - $79.1 Trillion
3. Prescription Drugs $19.9 Trillion

Ladies and gentlemen, that's over $100 TRILLION....TRILLION!!! dollars that we have essentially as debt. It may not show up as debt on the government's balance sheet, but its waiting for the gates to open to explode like a bull at a rodeo. It will be the shortest 8 second ride in history and it will end with our faces in the dirt just hoping we don't get trampeled on.

Looking at their effects on just a yearly budget, think about this. The Federal Government has tax revenues of about $2.2 Trillion/year. We have a deficit (we spend more than we take in) of roughly $1.4 trillion/year. The amount of money the federal government spends on just Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid equates to just over $1.5 Trillion dollars ($815 billion for Medicare/Medicaid and $712 billion for social security). Just from an annual expense viewpoint, these three entitlement programs alone equate to about 68% of our income taxes and engulf the entire yearly deficit.

One of the main problems I have as a Republican (actually, I'm a Libertarian, regardless...) is the lack of compassion the Republican party has about this. When a huge portion of the party identifies with "Christian Conservative Values" its completely hypocritical that they would turn their backs on the most vulnerable citizens of our country and demand crazy cuts to most entitlement programs as they scream for fiscal conservatism. This comes after 8 years of President Bush expanding government and ballooning the national deficit. If you asked them "What would Jesus do?" maybe tax increases wouldn't be such a nasty term.

Conversely, Democrats see it as an obligation to coddle the old and the poor. Its almost humiliating as they assert that these individuals can't help themselves, that the government must take up their cause or else. If there is a dollar to spend, the Democrats in Congress seem eager to tear it in half and spend two. It was under Democratic leadership (dating back to Franklin Roosevelt) that these safety nets turned into "entitlements" and such entitlements have outpaced the revenue working folk pay in to cover the cost of those using the services.

It's beyond clear, that these programs are ashes to the wind or at least burning like a gasoline fire. I've never heard any of my friends say they are expecting a dime from Social Security. My parents can't even rely on it to retire anymore. So why do we kid ourselves and the American public? Why does rhetoric overcome sensibility and intelligent discussion? During WWII, we threw hundreds of scientists together in the Manhattan Project to come up with the atomic bomb. The brightest minds in the room changed history and invented a whole new energy source in the face of necessity. Today, we throw hundreds of lawmakers together to help save these programs from a rotten despair, and all we get is an explosion of verbal vomit and school yard shoving matches.

If we can't just click and drag these programs to the proverbial trash can and they can't be sustained in the current forms any longer, where do we go from here? I have a couple of ideas, but let's see if any of you have any suggestions or comments. I haven't yet received too many comments on this blog, so if you are at all interested, now is the time to shout it out.

Sincerely,

Coco