Not trying to be rude but the questions you are asking make it seem like you didn't look at that perotcharts website. it's pretty objective and just presents the numbers.
Great read...I forwarded it to my friends...My favorite quote: This issue transcends political affiliation. When George Shultz, one of San Francisco’s greatest Republican public servants, was director of President Nixon’s Office of Management and Budget, he became worried about the amount of money Congress was proposing to spend. After some nights of tossing and turning, he called legendary staffer Sam Cohen into his office. Cohen had a long memory of budget matters and knew every zig and zag of budget history. “Sam,” Shultz asked, “tell me something just between you and me. Is there any difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to spending money?” Cohen looked at him, furrowed his brow and, after thinking about it, replied, “Mr. Shultz, there is only one difference: Democrats enjoy it more.” Frightening to think how helpless we are if we do nothing...To much politics involved, especially in an election year...Devalued dollor, rampant inflation, high energy prices, global warming, etc...
Maybe I'm being obtuse, but I'm just wondering how much of these health care entitlement costs, if abolished, will be forced upon aging and ill citizens. OTOH, what are the true effects of the 99.2 trillion expenditures. A bankrupt government in paper, but where is that paper going? Back into our hands or into multinational banks or offshore? The perotcharts website seems like a straightforward magic trick: get rid of entitlements, and we're back in black. All it is is deferring costs on a finite good (health care) from the public and into private hands. Every industrialized nation except ours has a national health plan. The idea that we should continue the free market trough solution we have is rather haphazard because it hasn't been shown to work. It creates merciless insurance policies skewed against the old and poor and favors the young and wealthy. Furthermore, even without the government teat to suckle upon, several states will attempt their own solution, likely to its own ruin because of the lack of collective bargaining on the national level. So while ridding federal expenditures on healthcare entitlements is a good idea in principle, it ignores the giant elephant sitting in the room.
