We are a reactive nation. To say we’re not proactive is an understatement. It goes well beyond apathy. If there were a psychological term for psychotic aversion to proactiveness, we’d be its poster child. Denial is the mechanism but doesn’t do justice to the heights we’ve achieved in the pursuit of avoidance and inaction.
Although this less-than-endearing trait permeates all facets of our social fabric, I’m ranting on our perennial economic/financial malfeasance. In 1973, so-called “discretionary” spending was 9.6 percent of GDP, with about 60 percent of that for defense. Today, discretionary spending is 6.6 percent of GDP—and included in these figures are defense spending (which, with the state of the world, I would hardly categorize as “discretionary”). The CBO says that discretionary spending is 35 percent of federal outlays (a pie chart from the CBO pegs it at 26 percent with 8 percent interest). The defense portion is 3-4 percent. The lion’s share, or two-thirds, of our non-discretionary spending is Medicare and Social Security. The Democrats don’t worry about spending, don’t worry about debt, and their entire political strategy revolves around steadily increasing spending and government welfare via dollar redistribution through taxation, borrowing, and printing (otherwise known as inflation). In service of recruiting to their party an ever-larger segment of an electorate nurtured on the government teat and no longer wedded to the concept of individual responsibility, this tactic handily buys votes for power. Now a majority of the electorate not only no longer looks upon government largess as demeaning, which was the norm just a few generations ago, but demands these handouts which inevitably morph into entitlements. Having been indoctrinated to believe that it comes from “rich” people who don’t “pay their fair share,” they are happy with the status quo. But it’s not really a status quo as the spending and size and intrusiveness of government are a moving target in one direction—up—and nary a voice calls for tit-for-tat reductions in spending in other areas; the idea of a balanced budget has long been abandoned. And Congress routinely abdicates its responsibility of even generating one by its mandated deadline; hence, the yearly threat of “government shutdown.” The Republicans as well are not blameless. While they at least play lip service to fiscal and budgetary responsibility, they’re junior varsity progressives, and also regularly overspend and grow government, albeit with less alacrity. There’s no shortage of economists that the Left can lean on to support “government assisted” economic policy. That history has time and again shown the disastrous consequences of this approach is no deterrent; musical chairs on a national level is only an unpalatable game to the one whose chair disappears, until all the chairs are gone. And people have an uncanny ability to ignore the missing chairs until it’s theirs.
Unfortunately, given the above circumstances, any talk of solutions by cutting discretionary spending are nothing more than a political smokescreen, You see, the American people have no appetite for cutting either Medicare or Social Security. In fact, any allusion to this is regarded as political suicide; hence the term, the “third rail” of politics. To her credit, Nikki Haley did discuss this issue early in her campaign; it seems to have taken a back seat, likely on the counsel of her political advisors. But who can blame her?
Medicare has been very good to me, covering the vast majority of my expenses for several chronic medical conditions. Personally, I’d hate to see it go, and I’ll likely pass on before it does. But it will; at least in its current form. Even now, physician have seen substantial cuts in reimbursement for decades, eaten away more aggressively lately by inflation, and something will have to give. In the short-term, I anticipate more monetary legerdemain to engineer some temporizing but inadequate reimbursement increases. But the end of the road exists for government-funded Medicine, Social Security, and our national debt in general. The unstated truth is that we’ve lived “higher on the hog” than the standard of living to which we’ve become accustomed, borrowing from generations to come, and the bill will come due. Those who think that “right wingers” have been singing this tune for years and no economic Armageddon has emerged are wise to remember the analogy of an earthquake fault: You can live near one for hundreds, or thousands of years while it builds tension, until it blows. And I see signs it will happen in my lifetime or shortly thereafter. But the reality is simply that it has to happen, whenever. And my heart goes out to those who will unwillingly bear the burden of our fiscal irresponsibility. Not that they are entirely blameless, for many have chosen to go along for the ride, but they were conditioned to accept this abnormal “norm” that benefited those that will soon be gone.
So Social Security, Medicare, and ultimately The System, will have to fail utterly before it’s fixed, like the junkie that must reach bottom. Keep an eye on states like mine, California, that are the most progressive, as they are the canaries in the coalmine. Will we, as a country, survive in recognizable form? Who knows, particularly in light of the deterioration of our social fabric on multiple fronts. But there is little doubt that the ogre, the second Great Depression, is peaking out from behind the money tree. Happy Halloween.
heartheaded
Heartheaded 