A lot has been written over the past week about Harold Camping and his judgement day predictions. Camping has been the object of scorn and comedy, and rightly so. It’s fun to poke fun at people who believe things that aren’t true. Speaking of people who choose to live in a delusion… what about Americans who believe that the nation’s debt crisis can be solved without reforming Medicare or Social Security? Anyone who believes we can magically fix our debt problems without reforming our entitlements is either uninformed or willfully ignorant. Sadly, a majority of Americans fit into one of those categories.
Close to six in 10 in the AP-GfK poll thought Social Security did not need to be cut as the government looked to get its books in order, while 54 percent said Medicare could be left alone.
We’re past the point of balanced budgets. I don’t have a great deal of confidence that the average American voter knows the difference between the budget deficit and the national debt. However, the average American doesn’t want the entitlements to end. These willfully ignorant Americans are much worse than Harold Camping. At least Camping isn’t bankrupting the nation.
The American dream used to mean that that anyone who worked hard could have a chance at prosperity. Now the American dream is state paid retirement and free health care until you die. The American dream even covers lazy people who want to live a fantasy existence. Who pays for this? You guessed it, the poor schmuck who is still working hard.
Raising taxes and reducing defense spending will not solve the long term problems with entitlements. The road seems clear to me. More and more Americans are dependent on entitlements and less and less Americans are working to pay for them. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see where this ends. I believe in the courage of the American character to tackle this problem, but the ignorance is too overwhelming. Plus, the Democratic party is solely focused on maintaining the status quo.
It would cost each American taxpayer over $1 million to cover the unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare, and the prescription drug program. Does anyone realize how dire this situation has become?
