Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Social Security - Are People Really That Stupid?

The Social Security trap--Michael A. Walsh - NYPOST.com

Social Security was long known as the “third rail” of American politics -- touch it and die. But now one politician is not just touching it, but grabbing it with both hands and giving it a long-overdue yank. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has set the conservative cat among the New Deal pigeons with his increasingly blunt assessments of the 76-year-old program as a “Ponzi scheme” and a “monstrous lie.” Despite warnings from his chief rival for the GOP nomination, Mitt Romney, that Republicans will be “obliterated” as a party if they challenge the program’s legitimacy, Perry’s unlikely to let up in tonight’s “Tea Party” debate in Tampa. Some fearful seniors probably will turn on the GOP, even though none of them stands to lose a penny in any conceivable reorganization of Social Security. But maybe the American people really are finally ready for some straight talk about entitlements. Already Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid account for 43 percent of the federal budget, and their rapacious, auto-pilot growth is inexorable. By 2049, these three major entitlement programs will consume all projected federal revenues. By any rational standard, they are the very definition of “unsustainable.”

Be sure to read the rest if you don't know it already. Economies of scale, time and Fed manipulation can pull off some wonderous miracles but in the end, promising and spending more than you bring spells, BROKE.