Even the non partisan CBO admits we can’t continue the way we are. And for all the dems who will blame this spending somehow on Bush, Obama has spent more than Bush has already, and is now talking about asking for a second stimulis. Read the report below
http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=328
Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run. Although great uncertainty surrounds long-term fiscal projections, rising costs for health care and the aging of the population will cause federal spending to increase rapidly under any plausible scenario for current law. Unless revenues increase just as rapidly, the rise in spending will produce growing budget deficits. Large budget deficits would reduce national saving, leading to more borrowing from abroad and less domestic investment, which in turn would depress economic growth in the United States. Over time, accumulating debt would cause substantial harm to the economy. The following chart shows our projection of federal debt relative to GDP under the two scenarios we modeled.
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So what do you think we should do to fix this problem? Is raising taxes inevitable? Will choking our economy to fight global warming be the answer?
@ TrainingWheels:
"No problem. Just raise taxes on the rich.
If a person is making over $250,000 he can afford to chip in a bit more."
250k isn’t even a whole lot of money, especially in places like California, for a household, comfortable at best.
The new health bill does include a tax increase on suchfamilies.
They already pay 57% tax, what do you want 100%?
Trust me, if you start this witch hunt, you will be next once the rich are bled dry.
The problem is a complicated situation that can be summed up rather simply:
The government is spending more than they are taking in.
The only form of revenue the government has is tax dollars, so it is pretty obvious they have to come up with more money in taxes. It is inevitable. The only warning I have, is that they cannot tax the rich too much. There are many emerging economies that would be happy to take some of our wealthy investors — and we do not want to push those people out of America.
The other part is we have to cut government spending. UHC is pretty much the opposite of this… The government needs to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security spending as it is out of control. Removing troops from overseas conflicts would save money and we need to cap welfare and unemployment benefits as well.
Americans need to become self sufficient again. As much as the federal government is a burden to some of us, we are a burden on the government looking for them to pay for and solve all of OUR problems. Now it is finally failing.