…with no shortage of lies:
A truly serious president would not be fiddling around while our future burns. He would be addressing entitlements (mainly, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid), which have tens of trillions in unfunded liabilities and constitute 60 percent of the budget. The day of reckoning on this government-generated mess is not all that far off, and when it comes, the economic crisis of the moment will seem small potatoes.
It’s a shame that we don’t have a serious president. It’s amazing that people report on this thing with a straight face. It’s like the coverage of Saddam Hussein’s “election” in which he got 99.9% of the vote.
Obama is addressing entitlements.
Social Security is not in big trouble — modest tax hikes and/or benefit cuts can make it solvent for centuries. The problem is Medicaid and Medicare, and they are problems because health care costs are rising at several times the rate of inflation. If that continues, the entire federal budget (and most of the private sector) will be devoted to health care before too long.
Serious entitlement reform means addressing the rate of growth in health care costs. Not coincidentally, health care reform is Obama’s #1 legislative priority.
I suppose it depends how one defines “big.”
Once upon a time, Fannie and Freddie weren’t considered to be in “big” trouble. Just ask Barney Frank.
Under the present system, if I want to make a health care decision that my insurance won’t cover, I still have the option of scraping together the money myself. I have no faith that a government-based “reform” will leave me that option.