Sunday Notes on the National Debt

We saw Dick Armey accuse Mitch McConnell of being a coward this Sunday for failing to sign on to Congressman Ryan's "Blueprint for a Banana Republic". Governor Steinholm just owned Dick Armey on both Social Security and Medicare. We should expect this nonsense to heat up through the elections and beyond. Senator Cornyn has introduced a bill to eliminate the section of the Heathcare Reform that established a panel to keep Medicare costs in check. The war on the remaining social welfare system is on!

So let's talk about the National Debt--$11+trillion inherited from the Bush-Cheney years. Conservative ideologues want to use this as a mandate to destroy the rest of government, except for the national security/ terrorist complex.

If you can visualize the solution, the problem is solved. Or as the Prophet Mohammed said, "The words of a scholar are worth far more than the blood of martyrs." OK, that's not quite relevant but a good quote anyway.

Number One--The McColm Social Security Plan that calls for the end of the cap on the FICA tax allows everyone alive today, including my two month old grandneice, social security, and even some of the next unborn generation. It would last through 2175. Problem solved.

Number Two--Medicare costs will be controlled by the present Healthcare Bill but the easiest solution is Howard Dean's proposal to allow all Americans to buy Medicare. This creates competition to the health insurance industry and through actuarial tables lowers health care costs in Medicare and also health costs nationally. The overwhelming Medicare costs are the last year of life. Medicare for All solves Medicare. Problem solved.

Number Three--The number one cause of current deficits is the Bush tax cuts. While I'm all for the Democrats trying to get Middle Class tax cuts, if we eliminate all of the tax cuts, we would be dramatically cutting the annual deficit and the national debt in the long-run. Problem solved.

Number Four--The Third Rail of American politics is the $1.2 trillion a year military/ terrorist budget. Eliminate just half America's 770 bases around the world and we save $125 billion a year. We are now creeping to a balanced budget with the tax cuts eliminated. 18% of our national debt is attributed to military pensions and healthcare for retirees. For the high rank personnel, make pensions dependent on wealth, since hundreds of generals earn more in the defense industry, and get older military retirees to pay more for their Tricare. We haven't even begun to phase out obsolete weapon systems. But even forgetting that, we should have a War Tax to pay for any real extended combat like the Vietnam War phone tax. Since we no longer have a draft , there is really no disincentives for Congress to vote against any conflict. Public opinion virtually doesn't matter. But if they must pass a tax to back up their pro-war vote, they might experience some hesitancy. It would condition our political culture not to opt for war as the first option, not the last. Problem sort of solved.

If we let Paul Krugman crunch the numbers, you would find that these proposals would push our deficit to less than 4% of GDP by the year 2020. And that's as good as you are going to get. And we still get to spend some money on Americans, who are in real need, and we don't have to de-develop as proposed by Congressman Ryan. Problem Solved.

Next on the agenda is to revitalize the economy. Stay tuned.