Thanks, I pretty much agree except that I believe real conservatives would do well to analyze how health care costs can actually be reduced through much heavier emphasis on prevention and behavioral science. Unfortunately, many 'conservatives' have painted themselves in such opposition to government that they are unable to actually support solutions.HooDat wrote:Social Security is easy (or it would have been easy in the 1980's when Charles Krauthammer was calling for this easy fix): we need to increase the eligibility age. When they set 64 as the age at which you could claim social security benefits, the average life expectancy was 62. Yes that is right, social security was a safety net for those who had prudently saved for retirement and had the misfortune of living longer than was prudently expected. If we had begun an easing in of extending out the eligibility age in the 80's when people like Krauthammer were calling for it, we would be looking at eligibility ages in the 70's now - and people could have prepared accordingly. The AARP fought the idea hard. Which is stupid because the folks who would have been impacted were in their 20's at the time and welcomed the concept. But the AARP is in the BUSINESS of collecting dues checks from retired people. You can't have people not retiring until they are in their 70's or you miss all those years of collecting those checks... bang1 The solution is still there, but we have to start enacting it now so people in their 20's and 30's can plan.MDlaxfan76 wrote:How do you feel about applying that to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid...and the interest on debt?
As the bank robber said, "because that's where the money is".
Medicare and Medicaid are harder - because I believe that the singularly most important thing a society can do is take care of its sick. We owe that to each other. We can argue for days about the best way to deliver that healthcare, but I believe that access to healthcare should be a right - above education, roads and even law enforcement. That is quite simply where we should be spending our tax dollars - the debate is about how. And I would say that while the concept of healthcare for all should be a constant, the method of delivering that healthcare should be reviewed on a fairly regular basis in order to weed out waste, sloth, and corruption. Look no further than the VA for a prime example.
just my thoughts....
As I said, that's where the real money is. And you missed the interest on the debt. Which is going up, both principal and interest rate.
This stuff dwarfs what faux conservatives whine about.
Merry Christmas Capt. Sarcasm...Merry Christmas.
The country could start by shutting the doors on Berkley and see what happens from there. To appease all the offended students each one could be given a government supplied surfboard and a case of sunscreen to help occupy their downtime while they regroup. The deal could even be sweetened to provide several food trucks at the beach to provide free fish tacos and lemonade.