Monday, July 16, 2007
Wake-up, indeed
The Fiscal Wake-Up Tour is making a stop in Nashville aujourd'hui.
David M. Walker, the Comptroller General of the United States, will visit the Downtown Rotary Club today to discuss the federal government’s long-term fiscal outlook.
The government's long-term fiscal outlook is, well, bleak. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid already consume nearly half of all federal spending; and many economists predict that these three federal programs will consume more than 75 percent of federal spending within a generation.
The United States' fiscal problem ain't unique. Indeed, practically the whole of Europe - not to mention Japan - is facing a similar problem: aging populations, a declining worker-to-entitlement-consumer ratio, and lawmakers who spend every waking moment thinking up new ways to expand the welfare state.
Unfortunately, I'll not be able to attend the Fiscal Wake-Up meeting today. I very much want to go, if only to count how many times the participants state that "additional revenues," i.e., higher taxes, are needed in order for the United States to get its fiscal house in order.
I'm willing to bet a dollar to anyone's dime that Mr. Walker will not entertain a single notion 'bout shrinking the size of the American welfare state.
That being said, I can only hope that Comptroller Walker keeps this in mind whilst talkin' about what can be done to ensure that the United States exists for another 225+ years ...
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back again into bondage."
-- Professor Alexander Tytler, describing the fall of the Athenian Republic ... prior to the American War for Independence
David M. Walker, the Comptroller General of the United States, will visit the Downtown Rotary Club today to discuss the federal government’s long-term fiscal outlook.
The government's long-term fiscal outlook is, well, bleak. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid already consume nearly half of all federal spending; and many economists predict that these three federal programs will consume more than 75 percent of federal spending within a generation.
The United States' fiscal problem ain't unique. Indeed, practically the whole of Europe - not to mention Japan - is facing a similar problem: aging populations, a declining worker-to-entitlement-consumer ratio, and lawmakers who spend every waking moment thinking up new ways to expand the welfare state.
Unfortunately, I'll not be able to attend the Fiscal Wake-Up meeting today. I very much want to go, if only to count how many times the participants state that "additional revenues," i.e., higher taxes, are needed in order for the United States to get its fiscal house in order.
I'm willing to bet a dollar to anyone's dime that Mr. Walker will not entertain a single notion 'bout shrinking the size of the American welfare state.
That being said, I can only hope that Comptroller Walker keeps this in mind whilst talkin' about what can be done to ensure that the United States exists for another 225+ years ...
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back again into bondage."
-- Professor Alexander Tytler, describing the fall of the Athenian Republic ... prior to the American War for Independence
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Monday, July 16, 2007 
