Entitlements the Beasts That Need to Be Slain

With Europe’s sovereign debt crisis lapping at American shores, President Obama’s bipartisan deficit commission is currently probing and sending feelers out to measure resistance to impending tax increases and spending cuts: Tough choices for politicians used to promising everything to everyone. Their report was scheduled to be released on Dec. 1.
Looking at the hard numbers, entitlements consume most of our tax dollars with defense taking the No. 2 spot. Entitlements are the beasts needing to be slain. Growing the fastest and most sacrosanct of expenditures, cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid significantly from its current 60 percent of our federal budget is a no brainer.
In addition to the federal mess, our state and local budgets and their $5 trillion of unfunded pension liabilities, much less of course if the magicians base investment returns at 8-9 percent.
Taxes consume 30 percent of GDP, with state and local taxes creeping up yearly, look at your property tax bills, not to mention those taxes that insidiously creep into wallets. “The Bush Tax cuts” put money into the pockets of all wage earners. Repealing the sweetest goodies from the highest earners puts a drop in the tax bucket.
Government or not, the numbers are virtually the same. The fact is that the cost of government must be reduced.
Those with the foggy notion that government should do this or that should first ask for a fiscally responsible government and not go into a fit when government hacks an entitlement. In France, now that the retirement age has been increased by two years, the loudest protests came from those in line for ever shrinking government jobs with reduced benefits and longer wait for openings. “We want the same deals that dad and grand dad got.”
Our economy is not going to grow out of this mess nor can it afford to tax its way out either. Note that measures taken by the enfeebled governments in Europe who are cutting spending by 70 percent and increasing taxes by 30 percent to reign in their huge deficits. In Ireland, the minimum wage will be reduced and the child tax benefit will end.
As with all taxation, the brunt will be felt by the bulk of taxpayers and less so by the rich; the most progressive of tax codes can only wring so much out of the upper income brackets.
The only thing more pitiful than the governments that get into such dire fiscal positions, are the people screaming for more benefits and entitlements. Rolling back entitlement promises would be altruistic and the first step in spreading social justice and tax fairness. What next “Greatest Generation” and “Boomers?” You got us into this mess!
(Gilliland is a graduate of East Stroudsburg University with a degree in Economics, and son of Copy Editor, Joan Nash.)