There is one constant in the universe. Government programs do not work. The lunacy is that we keep trying to make government programs work when we know they will fail again and again.
What is the latest?
It is the news that Social Security and Medicare are running towards insolvency.
From USA Today:
The lifespan of Social Security trust fund has been shortened three years because of high energy prices and a slow economy, trustees said Monday.
Social Security benefits will now run out in 2033, said its trustees in an annual report released today.
The Medicare fund for seniors' health care is scheduled to run dry in 2024, which is unchanged from last year, largely because of a 2 percentage point cut enacted by Congress last year.
But the trustees wrote in their report that "Medicare's actual future costs are highly uncertain and are likely to exceed those shown" by existing data.
"Lawmakers should not delay addressing the long-run financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare," the trustees wrote in their report.
They added: "If they take action sooner rather than later, more options and more time will be available to phase in changes so that the public has adequate time to prepare."
Gee another government program that is not working.
What a shock!
Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain both campaigned on the idea of using the Chilean model for private retirement funds. Guess what? The Chilean program works and ours does not.
Perhaps that is a clue that we should try something different.
Insanity has been defined as trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We need a different result and trying new government programs is not going to give us a different result.
We need a new mindset. We need a new paradigm.
But the only way we are ever going to get it is with new leadership. We must replace the Obama, Pelosi, Reid axis of fiscal evil and put Tea Party leadership in their place.
Only then are we going to get different results.
Permalink Reply by Debrajoe Smith-Beatty on The greedy government should not have sold from the seniors and spent it, like they do with any money they see. And illegal immigrants have no right being on Social Security.
Permalink Reply by Doug Nicholson on You're right, Debrajoe. Every member of Congress or President who voted for or signed legislation to steal from the S.S. trust fund should be indicted, tried and sent to prison for theft.
Odumbo's recent so-called "tax cuts" wherein the amount each employee paid into S.S. was cut is part of the reason the trust fund (now there's a misnomer) is running short. The other thing Odumbo neglected to tell the wage earners is that, because they paid in less each month during the "tax cut", their monthly benefit will be less when the time comes to draw it!
ABO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Permalink Reply by Guy Blanchard on obama is what they liberals wanted and now our nation is in peril. Transparency right?Too bad liberals don't move to the socialist nation of there choice and let America stay Free.Transparency remember?About that fake live birth paper,I hope just one elected offical will be on the side of the people and force obama and the commiecrats to show us all obama's real birth certificate and not some made up phony live birth paper.Transparency right?
Permalink Reply by OneCitizenOfTheRepublic on We need new faces with an old ideology...respect for and love of constitutional republican capitalism...what's so hard about that?
Permalink Reply by MUG on Amen, and Personal Responsibility. No entitlements from Nanny Goverment in exchange for votes.
Permalink Reply by Gerald V. Todd on Five important questions should be consistently asked, truthfully answered and applied with integrity when writing legislation and running any resulting bureaucracy:
Entitlements discourage individuals from challenging and motivating themselves. Are the people allowed to do their best when challenged? There will always be hard to define needs of the helpless which should largely be handled locally, especially in the long term. We’re all needy – we’re not all helpless!
Permalink Reply by JC Patriot on I pretty much agree with your list, but the first two might contradict each other without a little refinement. The first one's personal responsibility sounds like the founders' idea of the individual being protected from the beaurocracy, which of course always claims to be working on behalf of the wider community. The more I think about a politician using the words of your second question when championing some "screw the individual" legislation (as in eminent domain to seize private property and sell it to a developer for more tax revenue to allegedly benefit the community), the more I get nervous. Okay, maybe not just nervous, but perhaps extremely anxious, bordering on acute psychosis -- paranoid schizophrenia with all the extras on top -- throw in some Tourette's and hemiballismus -- now you get the frame of mind I'm speaking of.
Permalink Reply by Margie Barlow on This is a wonderful set of test questions for ANY bill put before Congress. Thank you Gerald
Permalink Reply by Thomas Angle on I believe the city of Huston did the same type of retirement as Chile. Of course Bush wanted to do this and everyone whined and complained for what reason I do not know. Of course we would not have this problem if we would have followed the Constitution and not allowed the federal government to get into the retirement business.
Permalink Reply by Grace Kirby on I don't know about Houston, but Galveston did it, and it works for them.
Permalink Reply by Thomas Angle on I knew it was a city in Texas.
Permalink Reply by JC Patriot on I think Glen Campbell had a hit song about Galveston because of this plan.
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