I don’t doubt it.

There are hundreds of thousands of people who will say one fine morning: “Hey! Wheh be mah wefare check, yo?”…and promptly start looking for the nearest blunt instrument and/or ingredients for a Molotov. And when that happens, ladies and gentlemen, the bad numbers on the nation’s balance sheet may quickly become the least of our worries.

To begin to get the deficit situation under control, the politicians will need to face entitlement cuts, defense cuts, and revenue increases. They will probably not even begin to contemplate this until next year.

No will any action be taken until the catastrophe strikes, then its slash and burn, baby.

The answer is no. And NEITHER political party will save us ultimately. Voting Republican means your country will last 40-50 years longer than if you vote Democratic. The is because Republicans spend LESS (especially on entitlements. But the best the Republicans can accomplish is to cut the RATE of spending not stop or reverse it. It should also be noted that the last Republican president Dounle-Ya was a champion spender.

The fatal flaw of a democracy is that the people are easily corruptible and can be persuaded by charismatic leaders to give up large chunks of their personal autonomy in favor of government giveaways which soon become addictive and thus entrenched. The more addicted people get (and thus dependent)the less able they are to think rationally-becoming intellectual droids. The nearly $16 trillion national debt is proof positive of the fruits of paternalism. The peoples’ blase response to this debt’s future ramifications is proof positive of a dulled national intellect engendered by this paternalism.

Even the most sincere Republican president is faced with this constant dilemma.viz: Should I stop the bleeding by cutting deeply into entitlement programs-which will result in national outrage so vehement that I may well be impeached on the spot-let alone fail in my re-election attempt further on down the road–or–2 Allow the bleeding to continue-but slow it down-with half-assed compromises which will cut the RATE of spending but not the spending itself-let alone reversing the process with that four letter word C-U-T-S. “I have saved my job but not mu country.”

John Maynard Keynes’ comment about “..in the long run we shall all be dead..”was really:

“The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs – in the long run we are all dead.”

He was also without the last 90 years of economic experience and scholarship.

J.E. Dyer on June 15, 2012 at 12:45 PM

.

Grow the pie, yup!

Even most left economists wince at raising taxes in a recession. But our POTUS wants to do just that.

Cutting taxes will not work well in this economy, either. I disagree with macro approaches, Republican or Democrat.

Develop rock power. Uncledave on June 15, 2012 at 12:09 PM

Why not? It goes to 11.

Bernstein graduated from the Manhattan School of Music with Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts where he studied double bass with Orin O’Brien. He earned a Masters Degree in Social Work from the Hunter School of Social Work, and, from Columbia University, he received a Masters Degree in Philosophy and Ph.D. in Social Welfare.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Bernstein

Well, if the above said it, and the boy JournoLister with the Washington Post agrees, we really can have our cake and eat it too.

God help us…

Grow the pie. Grow the pie. Grow the pie. Repeat as necessary until accepted.

We are drowing in an ocean of idled resources right now. America isn’t producing to anywhere near our capacity. This is because of 100 years of scaredy-pants left-wing policies. Change this, and you change everything.

echosyst on June 15, 2012 at 12:39 PM

Firefox – fully loaded. Problem gone (and auto-refresh).

It doesn’t make any difference. We are apparently going to go down with Europe . . .

Greyledge Gal on June 15, 2012 at 12:37 PM

Come now. The great RINO hope Romney will slow the air speed and make sure when we crash, the crater won’t be as big!

The indoctrination started in the 1850′s with Horance Mann’s Boston Day School. As this model of education moved across the states more and more people fell under it’s sway.

That I did not know. Then, it is a model of education that needs become extinct.

True education should begin in the home. Alas, too many parents have abdicated that responsibility, along with many others, to government.

Entitlements alone, and as they are now, will cause fiscal collapse all too soon.
hawkeye54 on June 15, 2012 at 12:06 PM

Actually, entitlements as they are now could almost be survivable. A little bit of Cancer is like a little bit of cancer. There is no such thing.

The problem with entitlements is that they increase exponentially. There will never be “enough” wealth redistribution; everyone who wants any of it will always want more of it.

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/over_half_of_apples_cash_locked_in_offshore_accounts/

That should begin to increase tax revenue as more people get back to work and more businesses are created.

hawkeye54 on June 15, 2012 at 12:11 PM

The indoctrination started in the 1850′s with Horance Mann’s Boston Day School. As this model of education moved across the states more and more people fell under it’s sway.

Develop rock power, getting power from rocks. Those things are everywhere. Sand, too.

Uncledave on June 15, 2012 at 12:09 PM

Uncledave for the win!