Funding entitlements

[30ashopper]

Interesting blurb about a JPM report regarding our unfunded entitlements. The author notes,

"The interesting part will be this: according to the IRS and other sources, there are not enough rich people to make a dent in the OMB's own deficit outlook to solve the problem. That's when we will have to see what the President and the Congress will do then: raise taxes on everyone, cut discretionary spending (even though there's not much left to cut), or begin to scale back on entitlement obligations."

[Updated] Unfunded Entitlements ‘r’ Us

To keep the entitlement promises we've made, personal income taxes, on average, would have to rise about 30% across the board (everyone) to keep the bills paid. So take whatever your current effective tax rate is (likely somewhere between 10% and 25% of income) and increase that by 30%. That's where we're headed if we want to keep social security, medicare, and obamacare alive. (Of course, the imapct of something like this would destroy the economy. There's no easy answer to this. Anything you do, would likely make things worse.)

 

[Geo]

Duh- cut defense spending. Can you imagine if we funded social security the way we fund defense? Every American over 50 would receive 3 checks per month.

 

[30ashopper]

Duh- cut defense spending. Can you imagine if we funded social security the way we fund defense? Every American over 50 would receive 3 checks per month.

That's discretionary, and it would cover it, even if we cut it zero. The financial comitment we've made through entitlements Geo is massive in scale.

 

[30ashopper]

For example, in Obama's 2010 budget:

Mandatory spending: $2.184 trillion (+15.6%) (entitlements)
Discretionary spending: $1.368 trillion (+13.1%) (defense and everything else)

 

[AndrewG]

So many don't understand the importance of defense. Without defense your way of life ceases, period. Millions of Americans have paid the ultimate sacrifice for us. Lets not be foolish and take that for granted. Cutting defense is the absolute last thing we should be doing.

The ones that disagree traditionally have not served.

 

[sarawind]

Most Americans believe the U.S. government spends far more on defense than it actually does. Defense spending is near historic lows, however, and the Administration?s proposed five-year budget plan would further reduce defense spending to levels unprecedented during wartime. Between 2010 and 2015, total defense spending is set to fall from 4.9 percent to 3.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), even though the nation has assigned more missions to the military over the past two decades. This growing disparity between funding and requirements is the primary cause of the increasing strain on the defense budget, but numerous other external and internal factors also are contributing to the problem.

Congress appears poised to repeat past mistakes by voluntarily disarming when operations in Afghanistan and Iraq eventually wind down, starting another period of defense underinvestment and decline. Despite requirement shortfalls dating from the 1990s, the Administration is planning to cut the defense budget, even though the existing budget is inadequate to repair, rehabilitate, and replace equipment worn down in combat, much less diversify the force and build the capabilities required to maintain current margins of U.S. military superiority.
Five times in the past century, the U.S. has fought a major war and then promptly disarmed, with damaging and avoidable consequences. Congress should not repeat the same mistake yet again. Instead, Congress should dare to take a longer perspective by justifying robust defense spending to voters in terms of the national security and economic benefits produced by a sound defense investment and modernization strategy.

Mackenzie Eaglen

 

[scooterbug44]

We didn't say we wanted to eliminate the US military altogether, we said that we needed to scale back what we spend on defense. :roll: There is a lot of pork and waste there.

A large part of the reason we HAVE such a budget crisis is because noone will accept any cuts. If you want to cut the defense budget, you hate veterans and don't appreciate their sacrifices. If you want to adjust Social Security, you don't like the working man and the AARP lobby goes for blood.

Entitlements are a very good word for them - because there are a lot of people who could easily pay for things and who rail against government spending, but won't turn any pork or benefits down because they feel they are "entitled" to them.

I still like my plan to tax the politicians' campaign contributions as part of balancing our budgets.

 

[Geo]

AndrewG, your rhetoric is tired and old. One can understand the importance of defense, the difference between fiscally responsible spending for defense and throwing money down the toilet under the guise of fighting a war on terror and keeping us safe,,,
without having served.

Would u care to discuss?

 

[30ashopper]

AndrewG, your rhetoric is tired and old. One can understand the importance of defense, the difference between fiscally responsible spending for defense and throwing money down the toilet under the guise of fighting a war on terror and keeping us safe,,,
without having served.

Would u care to discuss?

I'd like to know why Obama isn't doing something about it. Republican presidents alway seem to bump up defense spending.. democrat presidents usually pull it back. Yet under this president we've seen defense and war spending balloon. Have we finally reached a point where everyone in Washington is at the beck and call of the defense lobbyists? Are we ever going to pull our troops back from across the globe?? I sense the answer is that finally we've reached a point where the answer will always be "no".

For 2010:

$663.7 billion (+12.7%) ? Department of Defense (including Overseas Contingency Operations)

That's with the pull back in Iraq!

 

[ugabuga]

So many don't understand the importance of defense. Without defense your way of life ceases, period. Millions of Americans have paid the ultimate sacrifice for us. Lets not be foolish and take that for granted. Cutting defense is the absolute last thing we should be doing.

The ones that disagree traditionally have not served.

AndrewG, I served 27 yrs. Our enemies live in caves, for God's sake! We don't need more guns, tanks, planes, ships, missiles, bombs... these things are useless against the cavemen. The US spends more on "defense" than the next 15-20 nations combined! While we've frittered away our treasure on unneeded military stuff, other civilized nations have provided better healthcare & education for their citizens.

Bring the troops home from Iraq & Afganistan.

Bring the troops home from Europe & Japan (65 yrs after end of WWII).

Cut the "defense" budget.