Showing posts with label entitlement bomb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label entitlement bomb. Show all posts

February 16, 2008

We predicted that HP hero and Comptroller of the US David Walker didn't have much time left - that' he'd be killed or ousted. Well, he's alive...


But he's leaving. And that sucks. But at least they didn't kill him.

The press release says he's leaving for better and brighter things. But I think Bush and Congress just needed him to go away. Seriously, this courageous man was one of the only people in government telling the truth (one of the others being Ron Paul of course). Not that it mattered though, and I see the MSM quote the $9 trillion number 99% of the time, not the real number.

When Congress or Bush talked about $200 million deficits and $9 trillion debts, it was Walker who'd remind them that WE'RE $52 F*CKING TRILLION IN DEBT. When Congress and Bush had all kinds of great new ways to spend taxpayer money, it was Walker who'd remind them THAT WE'RE F*CKING BROKE.

Well, now he's leaving. And I look forward to his replacement, Mike Norman or David Lereah. But here's a few of his gems on the way out.

* "You're supposed to leave the country not just the way you found it, but better prepared for the future. The baby boom generation is failing on that."

* The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are "going to cost $2 trillion by the time we're done." [They're up to around half a trillion now.]

* If private corporations published balance sheets the way the federal government does, Walker said, their leaders would go to jail.

* The biggest deficit in this country right now is "leadership."

February 07, 2008

You know what the big story will be with this election? We'll have our first Gen X vs. the Baby Boomers & Retirees war


Obama vs. McCain, a 46 year old vs. a 71 year old. Generation vs. Generation. "X/BB 1 - Let's get it on".

Unfortunately, in order to get elected and to get Boomers and retirees to vote for him, Obama has to run on a "don't worry we'll protect your social security and medicaid/medicare" platform. But after he's elected, and he sees the basic math, and that this timebomb that's been neglected for a generation is blowing up on his watch, he'll be forced to take serious action, for the first time since Reagan.

He says he'll just raise taxes on wage earners, by eliminating the $102,000 ceiling, and everything will be fine. Not a bad idea, if it wasn't such a bad idea. Like most Democrats, he thinks if you have a problem, just raise taxes!

A true Gen X vs. Baby Boomer Social Security Battle Royale would go the exact opposite direction - letting earners opt out of this Ponzi scheme, while at the same time raising the retirement age to 72 or 75 and beyond, and continuing to raise it with increased life expectancy data, while means-testing payments and holding benefit increases to income inflation not price inflation.

And the even bigger problem of Medicaid/Medicare is gonna entail even more pain to solve. Slashing benefits, eliminating the prescription drug wet kiss, raising premiums, and again ushering in means testing. Or going the way of socialist Europe with sky-high taxes and Hillary forced healthcare. Either way we're $52 trillion in debt when you add in entitlement promises, and whoever is president in 2009 is gonna have to deal with this mess.

We've been talking about the coming X vs. Boomer war and the entitlement bomb for years. Obama / McCain is the first X/BB battle. First of many. Get ready.