Blind Men and Elephants in the Room: How Much Should We Worry about the Public Debt?

President Obama is expected to announce today a $3.8 trillion budget with a $1.2 trillion deficit for FY2011. Here’s the context within which he will reveal his plan. For decades now, the federal debt acquired through years and years of deficit spending has been the “elephant in the room” – the huge presence nobody talks about but everyone knows is there. In last week’s State of the Union address, however, debt joined unemployment as the two most urgent issues facing America as Obama enters his second year as our President.

Last year, the White House and Congress went “Keynesian” in a big way as the real-estate bubble popped and ...

Seniors for Sale? The Obama Adminstration’s $250 Social-Security Giveaway

Last week, President Obama called for a second “one-time” payment of $250 to each of more than 50 million seniors receiving Social Security benefits. Some 7 million recipients of other government entitlements — veterans, the disabled, and retirees from railroad jobs and public employment — are also included in this gift package. “Even as we seek to bring about recovery, we must act on behalf of those hardest hit by this recession,” the President said.

“Hardest hit?”

Over-60’s in America have the highest net worth of any age group in the entire world. In addition, seniors can’t be fired because they’ve already retired. It’s people in younger demographics ...

The Medicare Football

Charles Schultz’s oft-revisited storyline is a useful parable for analyzing some of the politics of healthcare reform today.   Consider Lucy to be government proponents of various healthcare bills and plans; Charlie Brown, some concerned citizens; and the football, those various bills and plans.

Once again, the government is telling us that a huge new program, one affecting more than 1/6 of the economy, will be deficit- and debt- neutral without major increases in taxes.  Why?  Because much the expansion will be “paid” for by waste reduction in Medicare.

The first questions we Charlie Browns – who are expected to be happy and complacently accept these proofs by assertion – must ask include the ...