When will somebody, anybody, in Washington have the courage to do the right thing for the American people? When will one, just one of our elected leaders put fortitude and honesty over their political ambitions? Recent events tell us we should not hold our breath.
The Associated Press reports that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that in this year alone, social security will pay out $45 billion more than it collects. For the past thirty years the program has run surpluses which the government has conveniently borrowed to pay for other programs. Now, with the program in red ink our leaders will have to find another Peter to rob in order to pay Paul.
That will be a problem because the CBO also reports that the government’s deficit spending will rise to a new high of $1.5 trillion this year thanks in no small part to the new tax cuts which add $400 billion to the deficit. So not only is there not enough money to pay back Social Security, there’s no money…period.
So how do our elected leaders respond to this monumental problem that threatens the country’s very existence?
Lets’ start with the President. On Tuesday night he gave the State of the Union address. In his speech he challenged the country to “Win the Future”. He proposed increased investments in education, infrastructure and innovation. He said that “this is our Sputnik moment.” How does he intend to pay for these investments? His solution is to freeze discretionary spending at current levels for five years and roll back the tax cuts for the wealthy. First of all discretionary spending is 12% of the budget. In terms of overall spending it is a pimple on the butt of an elephant. To freeze discretionary spending and expect any significant results is laughable and downright disingenuous. Rolling back the tax cuts on the rich will have some impact. But the chances of getting that past a Republican controlled House are slim and none….and the President knows that. The President acknowledged the gorilla in the room, Social Security, saying we need to stabilize the program. But he gave no specifics. And he completely ignored the current hot topic, gun control. His staff promised that the President would speak out on guns “soon”. We’ll see.
Republicans are no better. After months of campaign promises to cut the deficit and tackle Social Security they offer no specifics. In fact when asked for their recommendations thy say they are waiting for the President to put forth his ideas and then they will comment. Their only overt effort to tackle the deficit was to hold unemployment benefits hostage while they pushed Obama to approve the tax cuts for the wealthy; thereby ADDING $900 billion to the deficit over the next ten years. When asked if he had a “Sputnik moment” Speaker Boehner said “you want a Sputnik moment? I’ll give you a Sputnik moment. We’re broke! And the American people know we’re broke.” Yet Mr. Boehner and his party offer no solutions.
No one has the intestinal fortitude to step up and say what we need to do to fix financial problems. They are all afraid that to speak the truth about the hard cuts that need to be made will cost them their jobs. So they wait for the other side to do the dirty work so they can pounce on them for political gain.
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough said, “Politicians are cowards.” He’s right.
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