The State of the Union
I’m convinced more than ever that we should revert to the custom observed when our country was young, and merely have the report on the State of the Union be delivered in writing once a year to Congress. Last night was an enormous disappointment.
First, it was yet another missed opportunity for Biden to at least pretend to want unity in the country. He has but one message: Ultra MAGA Republicans will destroy the country. Who knows, he might be right. After all, he’s already done most of the work for them.
While it should be difficult to select the worst calumny from among so many deserving ones, Republicans will kill Social Security and Medicare takes the crown. I have no doubt that the document the Liar-in-Chief offered to provide as “proof” of his statement does refer to both programs, the truth is that we need to look hard at all entitlement programs. They, plus interest on the debt, cannot continue to monopolize our national spending. To balance this year’s budget, if they are not addressed, the entire rest of the Federal budget must be reduced by 85%. Illegal aliens will have to be given free flip phones instead of smart phones.
When Social Security was established by FDR in the 1930s, he made a number of promises in order to get them passed. Every one of the promises has since been broken, as have all promises made about subsequent social programs. None of that has been as harmful as President Johnson’s moving the program “on budget.” At the time the program was started, actuaries knew it would run enormous surpluses the first seventy years. That was necessary to guard against any population “pig in a python,” such as the baby boomers represented. Before 1950, actuaries knew that around 2005 the surpluses would be needed to offset baby boomers’ retirements. Fortunately, the program, as well as Medicare, was “off-budget.” It was not counted in the income or expenditure of the government.
Johnson faced a problem while trying to pursue both the Vietnam War and the Great Society social program. There was no money to do both. So, he put Social Security and Medicare on budget, and suddenly there was plenty of money – the critical cumulative surplus – to spend. There is one thing that Congress invariably does well, and that is spend OPM (Other People’s Money) without regard for how to repay it. In a flash, Democrats had untold riches to give away in special programs for everyone. Not to be outdone, Republicans instantly came into funding for targeted tax breaks for friends and family. Drunken sailors hung their heads in shame in the late 1960s.
The politicians who did this are all dead now. And the bill is overdue. Complicating things, of course, Joe Biden, who was already ancient when Roosevelt was born, stopped learning new things well before the great funds fiasco occurred. He’s still living in 1937 with surpluses showering down, only to be shoveled out the door by the trillions before they can be counted.
The profligate spending has resulted in inflation (Biden claims there’s no connection, but did you expect a sudden attack of competence?). Nobody making less than $400K will be taxed to pay for this waste. By this time next year, $400K will be the price of a dozen eggs.
There is a tipping point that comes with every change. A point where it is past the opportunity to avert the change and the point where the change begins. 1913 and the federal income tax comes to mind. Subsequent points (SS, welfare, destruction of the family, unfettered killing of unborn humans, Patriot Act,...) only accelerate and codify the long decline from a free state to a controlled state.
IMHO America is too far down the path to have a few (more) laws passed to save the Republic. Americans in large part do not want conflict so in the next ten to twenty years the idea of a free people living in the land formerly known as the United States of America will descend into the realm of myth. Young adults won't understand what it means to live a self-directed life because it won't exist in 2043 and they won't be taught that it ever existed.
If people want to live a self-reliant life in the future, they will have to have an inner drive to do so and will need to discover hidden texts that explain what it is and that it did exist successfully and believe that they can attain it for themselves. Most likely they will have to literally fight other "Americans" for their natural right to live their life the way they deem best.
To the grandparents out there, tell your grandkids stories of when you were young and what you could do that they couldn't now and what you dreamt about and actually achieved. A society made of souls whose life is already mapped out by strangers and held to arbitrary limits is no life at all...it is only existence.
Good summary. Maybe after it's all played out the "trust" funds will be OK. The bad part is too many working age folk, maybe the skilled people, will be dead and no longer paying taxes. If we seniors die a few years early, no real economic loss. But those in their prime?
I suppose mismanagement in government is the normal condition. Having zero interest rates for an extended period moved asset classes around causing what we are now seeing, inflate our debt away. But the CPI uppers on SS means you can't escape that way. Vaccine risks were then acceptable, but did they know?