Entitlements' unimpeded growth is boon to seniors

AP ^ | 10 May 13 | CHARLES BABINGTON

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With Congress increasingly unable to resolve budget disputes, federal programs on automatic pilot are consuming ever larger amounts of government resources. The trend helps older Americans, who receive the bulk of Social Security and Medicare benefits, at the expense of younger people.

This generational shift draws modest public debate. But it alarms some policy advocates, who say the United States is reducing vital investments in the future.

Because Democrats and Republicans can't reach a grand bargain on deficit spending — with mutually accepted spending cuts and revenue hikes — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid keep growing, largely untouched. Steady expansions of these nondiscretionary "entitlement" programs require no congressional action, so they flourish in times of gridlock.

Meanwhile, many discretionary programs are suffering under Washington's decision-by-indecision habits, in which lawmakers lock themselves into questionable actions because they can't agree on alternatives.

The latest example is $80 billion in automatic budget cuts, which largely spare Medicare and Social Security. Growth in these costly but popular programs is virtually impossible to curb without bipartisan agreements.

Instead, the spending cuts are hitting the military and many domestic programs that benefit younger Americans. They include early education initiatives such as Head Start, and scientific and medical research. This shift in public resources is dramatic and growing. While 14 cents of every federal dollar not going to interest was spent on entitlement programs in 1962, the amount is 47 cents today, and it will reach 61 cents by 2030, according to an analysis of government data by Third Way, a centrist-Democratic think tank.

"Entitlements are squeezing out public investments" in education, infrastructure, research and other fields that have nurtured future prosperity, the study said. "The only way for Democrats to save progressive priorities like NASA, highway funding and clean energy research is to reform entitlements."

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Said well.

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It is far worse for a person under the age of fifty. It is estimated that a forty year old worker who has paid into the system since age 18, making the average monthly income of $3,009. month and retires at 67 would have to live to 115years and 7months to get their ‘investment’ plus interest in Social Security benefits back. That is if the system hasn’t collapsed, which it most certainly would have by the time they are set to retire. Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme as is Medicare. Had a private corporation set up such a decidedly generational theft program, they would be doing more time than Bernie Madoff.

Agree.

For some reason, my first post was deleted, but to reiterate - we are about to have generational warfare in this nation.

I have no problem taking care of seniors. But today's seniors are have levied trillions in unfunded liabilities on tomorrow's seniors, in effect - stealing the future from tomorrow's seniors, and tomorrow is very close at hand.

Moreover, I do believe we need to quickly (like yesterday) establish unearned entitlement reform. Unearned entitlements are Food Stamps, Section 8 vouchers, home energy payments, TANF Welfare (T stands for "temporary"....isn't that humorous?), the Earned Income Tax Credit (which was never earned because they don't pay taxes!), and a host of over 70 other welfare programs.

These HAVE TO STOP - at least in their current form.

Medicare, Medicaid, and ObamaCare are bankrupting this nation, and we have to get our arms around medical costs. The procedures, tests, and drugs in our nation cost 3 to 4 times what they cost in other developed nations.

Lawyers are huge part of this problem, but the other problem we have is the medical establishment is setting their own prices, compounded by the fact that our insurance companies pass the inflated costs onto those who are actually paying for their insurance in order to cover the moochers.

I hate the Clintonian word "Investments" - because it is all government spending. But discretionary spending does give us NASA, medical research grants to our best universities, defense research and manufacturing, ship building, infrastructure, and our brave military.

We are almost at 2/3rds of all spending going to direct deposits or checks to individuals and government health-care (right now the figure is 63%). And the trend is more, more, more Entitlement spending.

Because of this, we are becoming a weaker nation - militarily, morally, and fiscally.