patrick.net

I'm starting to be convinced that WWIII

Will be the direct result of our Partisan bickering. And we'll lose, because we wont galvanize as a nation the way we did in previous World Wars.
I bet the parties will have different countries each considers Allies.

Obama has thoroughly vandalized the Fucking pump beyond repair.

And you don't need a weather man to know which way the chickens will come home to roost.

"unsustainable" my ass.

Social security is a pass-through between generations. As long as the generations match in size, and the cost-of-living of seniors matches that of the younger generations (and why would it not), SS is perfectly sustainable.

Medicare "sustainability" (next decade as the baby boom ages from their sixties into their 70s) requires wringing the excess profits out of our health sector.

Public employee retirement costs are indeed a big-ass expense, one that past and present politicians have been able to foist on us and future generations cost-free (to them), and will require mature political solution to reach an equitable (to the pensioners and taxpayers) solution and "sustainable" balance.

I don't have any answer to that last issue. "Somebody set us up the bomb" as it were.

Even the aging boomers shall pass. There are easy solutions it seems to me: raise the cap or make a donut hole, or both; raise FICA a point or two; raise retirement age.

Pay-go is easy, and even easier when there was been a large surplus for the non-boomer retirement period.

What do social welfare programs have to do with the military industrial complex, other than the fact that what we spend on military prevents us from being able to afford the high quality social programs that some first world countries have ?

marcus says

What do social welfare programs have to do with the military industrial complex, other than the fact that what we spend on military prevents us from being able to afford the high quality social programs that some first world countries have ?

The point Ike was trying to make 50+ years ago about the military industrial complex, is players in that arena (defense contractors and tech loving military leaders), want the newest most weapons systems. Basically to produce those "expensive toys" things take a life of their own, and defense companies and military leaders game the system to just enrich themselves at the expense of society as a whole.

I suggest w/in the political/social welfare realm things are not all that different.

Ever notice all too often (lawyers and politicians) game the system to just enrich themselves at the expense of society as a whole. Seems to me like what is left to those at the bottom of the economic food chain is crumbs, because charity "overhead" is subtracted out to insure "work welfare" for lawyers and politicians.

just saying

phaster says

because charity "overhead" is subtracted out to insure "work welfare" for lawyers and politicians

skim's a lot lower for social programs.

What money do lawyers and politicians rake from the $80B/yr SNAP expense?

'

SNAP's the bread, DOD's the circus I guess.