“Addressing the country’s fiscal problems will require difficult choices, but postponing them will only make them more difficult." Ben Bernanke, Fed Chairman
Wow, that is amazing timing, Ben. Did this looming fiscal disaster only just occur in the last few days? No, this has been brewing for decades and this year Social Security pays out more than it collects. Last year's deficit broke a trillion dollars! The country has been on a glide path for fiscal disaster for a long, long time but now Ben suggests tough decisions need to be made. Where have you been for the last year, Ben, when the country was pondering a new entitlement that would exacerbate the problem? No, a month after President Obama signed the bill into law, Ben comes out and warns that the country can't spend like this. What, you only figured that out AFTER the bill passed?
If a private company practiced the fiscal shenanigans of our government, the CEO and board of directors would be sent to jail under existing laws. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme that dwarfs Bernie Madoff but no one is going to jail. And Medicare is worse! Interest payments on the debt will quadruple in the next decade. This should be news to no one, especially not the Federal Reserve Chairman.
It was easy for FDR, LBJ, Tip O'Neil, and others to kick the bankruptcy can down the road. They all knew the disaster - if one ever came - would occur long after they were dead. Like Louis XV, they could indifferently announce, "After me, the flood."
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