Free Republic

Social Security and Medicare are on an “unsustainable course” and will run out of funds by 2037. That’s the conclusion reached by the General Accountability Office (GAO) and the Social Security Administration.There is no saving these programs without massive changes. And demagoguing the issue, as Joe Biden and the Democrats are doing, only delays the day of reckoning. To pretend these programs don’t need intervention now — right now — is to play with dynamite. The sooner we can get started, the less pain will be inflicted on senior citizens.Pain there will be. In order to put these programs on...

fringeelements | July 08, 2010 The fashion is to say "economics can't explain all political issues" - which is an absurd idea based on a simplistic view of economics. Economics can explain all purposeful action toward a given goal. What of these goals and how do they come about? That's the realm of psychology. But beyond that, economic reductionism FTW. No need to speak of "social forces" independent of economics as if King Ludd is a giant cell and men are his organelles. Solving problems by breaking them down into individual actors... is good.

The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday began running ads in opposition of a decision by House Ways and Means Chairman Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) to pay for his green energy tax bill by rescinding several tax breaks benefiting the oil and gas industry. The ads are slated to run in 10 states and depict the tax increases as job killers. The 15- and 30-second ads will attempt to show voters that increasing taxes on an industry that supports 9.2 million jobs and represents 7.5 percent of the country’s GDP will have a devastating effect on the economic rebound. “The ads are...