Monday, May 16, 2011

Scary

I can't even understand the very basics of the national debt. Linked is a chart where you can fiddle with spending and savings. Why don't we just get rid of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security completely if we can't afford them? Families will need to take care of each other again. Cut some defense. I don't know what to say about "other." I suppose we can cut that too.

All I know is that I don't use Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security but I pay for them. And I imagine I won't ever get to use them. I find the whole thing very confusing. If I can't afford to go to Hawaii, I don't go to Hawaii. If I can't afford health insurance, I don't get health insurance. It sucks, but I'll try to find a higher paying job.

I know this is juvenile and insensitive, but really, how else can we deal with these problems?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I know this is juvenile and insensitive, but really, how else can we deal with these problems?"

Here's how:

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/05/chart-day-where-debt-comes

Greg said...

well if were that easy, why wouldn't the dems just do it? they had control of white house and the congress for 2 years - when the debt became a huge issue. let's face it - we would not have gotten into iraq or had the huge tax cuts if we knew in advance the financial crisis.

i don't think the chart makes full sense, however, because there are much larger long-term obligations/costs to social security and medicare/medicaid than the iraq war and afghan war, both of which are winding down.