Archive for the ‘Entitlements’ Category

Nums: The millenials’ real fiscal crisis is still ahead …

December 6, 2012

No secret that spending is out of control … exceeding tax revenues by 10 percentage points of GDP

Dems are saying “don’t touch Social Security, Medicare or any other entitlements”

Some folks are saying “Keep borrowing, rates are low”.

Here’s the predictable outcome …  no budget left for ANYTHING except entitlements and interest on the debt … and, it can’t be solved by simply taxing the millionaires and billionaires who make more than $250,000..

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Source: Mary Meeker KCPB

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Posted in Entitlements, Fiscal cliff, Taxes | 2 Comments »

The USPS is needed .. to deliver all of those gov’t checks.

October 7, 2011

Punch line: According to the  WSJ, nearly half of all U.S. households now receive some type of government benefit.

  • Over 1/3 of Americans lived in a household that received benefits such as food stamps, subsidized housing, cash welfare or Medicaid.
  • Almost 15% lived in homes where someone was on Medicare or Social Security, or both.

Reminder: Some 46.4% of households will pay no federal income tax this year, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. That’s up from 39.9% in 2007

My bet: All of these households think spending cuts are a bad idea …
and tax hikes on other folks are strokes of brilliance.

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Posted in Entitlements, Health Care / Medical Insurance, Social Security, Taxes | 1 Comment »

Superpower or welfare state ? … Take your pick.

June 2, 2011

Punch line: In a series of adios speeches, Defense Secretary Gates speaks a consistent refrain: America can be a superpower or a welfare state, but not both..

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Excerpted from WSJ:

“The reality is that the entitlement state is crowding out national defense.

What’s really happening now is “entitlement overstretch”.

The American entitlement state was born with the New Deal, got fat with the Great Society of the 1960s and hit another growth spurt in the first two years of the Obama era.

The big three entitlements — Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, plus other retirement and disability expenses — accounted for 4.9% of GDP by 1970, eclipsed defense spending in 1976 and stood at 9.8% as of last year.

Under current projections, entitlements will eat up 10.8% of GDP by 2020, while defense spending goes down to 2.7%.”

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Ken’s Take: Note the “secret” to how Clinton was able to balance the budget – simply cut defense & intelligence spending and hope for sustained peace.

Oops.

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