Posted on 08/14/2009 12:04:00 PM PDT by icwhatudo
Obama is about to begin his Town hall in Montana. Post your comments here. Sen. Max Baucus doing the intro now.
America cant finance all the long-term entitlement promises it already has made to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid beneficiaries. But President Obama and Congressional Democrats ignore this fact and insist instead on adopting still another entitlement with subsidies for health insurance for families making $100,000 a year or more, and Medicaid expanded even further. The latest Trustees Reports show the unfunded liability for Medicare alone is $89 trillion. Social Security adds another $15.1 trillion in unfunded liabilities, for a total of $104 trillion. And that doesnt even count Medicaid. The entire American economy right now produces only about $14 trillion a year
Since World War II, going back 60 years, total federal spending as a share of Gross Domestic Product has been stable, hovering around 20 percent. But the cost of the three big entitlement programs alone, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, is now projected to eventually reach 20.5 percent of GDP.
Counting burgeoning interest on the national debt, on our current course federal spending would skyrocket towards 40 percent of GDP by 2040. Counting state and local spending, total government in America would consume more than 50 percent of GDP. GDP would collapse under the weight of all that spending and the resulting taxation and debt. America, quite simply, would no longer be a free country in terms of the freedom of people to enjoy the fruits of their own labor.
This doubling of federal spending as a share of GDP implies a doubling of federal tax rates. The Heritage Foundation reports that trying to pay all of the promised benefits of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid by raising income taxes would require raising the top 35 percent tax bracket to 77 percent and the 25 percent tax bracket paid by middle-income earners to 55 percent. All income tax brackets, in fact, would have to be doubled.
By 2018, less than 10 years from now, Medicare Part A will be running a deficit of close to $100 billion. General revenue contributions for Medicare Parts B and D that year are now projected to be $364 billion. Consequently, the deficit for Medicare alone that year will be close to $500 billion, and that assumes a scheduled reduction, which Congress will surely reverse, in doctor and hospital reimbursements of more than 20 percent.
President Obamas runaway tax-and-spend economic policies aremaking all of this much worse. CBO projects the national debt would soar under his budget, from 40 percent of GDP today to 82 percent by 2019, almost as big as our entire economy. And this 10-year period includes only the very beginnings of the exploding entitlement crisis. The national debt at the end of World War II was 113 percent of GDP. Throwing President Obamas economic policies on top of the entitlement crisis would shoot the national debt well past that record. House GOP budget chief Paul Ryan projects the national debt would reach 200 percent of GDP by 2035 and continue rocketing upwards.
And this is before adoption of of a new national health care entitlement. In the face of this long-term entitlement crisis, it could not be more fiscally reckless and irresponsible to propose a new middle-class entitlement for health insurance.
FYI:Nine out of ten Medicare recipients have supplementary insurance to pay for what Medicare won't cover.
I bet they can get TP from Sharon Stone. After all, she only uses one sheet/need!
But don’t shake hands w/her!
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/08/obama-healthcare-reform.html
Yes, hospitals readmit some people over and over. I guess it is still the hospital’s fault that most of these readmits are folks with serious, chronic diseases that they will never heal from.
That’s right. They should dump this bill. DOA.
You got that right. If I get to 'chat' with Max, I'll be sure to remind him that "but Obama said that you...".
As to being a smart alec, well that's just something that you HAVE to do! (I think it's required here too)
In the Wild West, where law was often non-existent, vigilantes often took “enforcement of the law,” as well as moral codes into their own hands. The term vigilante stems from the its Spanish equivalent, meaning private security agents.
Words mispronounced as ELKS
The plural form ain’t MOOSES
If bad grammar was a crime
We could break out the ****** lol
Funny how you can tell professional protesters. They all have the expensive printed signs. Their face is always mean.
>>”Can anyone identify this Carol Wilder person?”<<
I want to know who “Randy” was and how did 0bama know his name before he introduced himself? Anyone record this and can check back. I swear he said his name as he was putting his water glass back down on the table BEFORE “Randy” got the mike.
Glenn Beck is on. Will check back later.
And what was your reply after you got up off the floor you fell down to because of laughing at him so hard?
Just once, I would love to be in a room with obama and as it gets really quiet, yell out....
Obama you lying Son of a Bitch!
Lord would I at least feel better. “
My sentiments perzakly!
Of course this is a staged event.
Obama is such a liar. He needs to go. If I heard one more time that he was going to allow us to do this or that: I was going to puke.
I agree with you there. I usually see this staging when the Dems speak - but you're right, the previous Townhalls usually have been just the speaker talking to the attendees. Obama I guess likes to stick with the script...
I watched the “Montana Plant Fertilization” project and just now am able to check out this thread. This may have been addressed already, but did anyone else notice that the audio and video of Obama was synchronized, while that of the questioners was not? i.e.; there seemed to be a timed delay in the audio of those in the ‘nersery’, but not in the President’s responses.......waiting to see if anything needed to be censored, perhaps?
LOL! That’s great!
Ha-ha - you got me!
That chick looks enough like the muslim rage boy, they could have been separated at birth.
OMG, Obama is a bore too. LOL
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