A recent survey showed that the vast majority of Tea Party participants while decrying the size of the federal government and high taxes have no special problem with Social Security and Medicare which begs the question why are they opposed to the PPACA which is just another entitlement like Social Security and like Medicare and Medicaid.
Entitlements are interesting things, we love to hate them, but love to love them. This is true the longer they are in effect and the more we come to depend on them. So, all the rhetoric about government interference and individual responsibility contains no more substance than a cup of tea.
The fact is that mandatory spending makes up 59.5% of Federal spending and 70% of that is for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid…and will grow as all the subsidies, credits and other spending kick in under the PPACA. Social Security alone is 20.3% of federal spending while the military is slightly less than that. As I have said before, it won’t be long before the PPACA is just another line item under the mandatory spending category.
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So, while we yell and scream about spending, the deficit and taxes, the fact is we are quite content to spend what we don’t have on what we want anyway, not unlike the average American family. If any politician had the guts to say the COLA under Social Security needs to change, the early retirement age needs to change and the Medicare deductible needs to go up to at least $500, we would probably tar and feather him. However, we have no trouble railing against foreign aid which along with all international affairs makes up 1.6% of the federal budget.
In the end, we are no different than any other socialist leaning country, we do want the government (and the following generations) to take care of us and no, we do not want and do not accept personal responsibility for much of anything. The Chinese view is that America is in decline and thus becoming less reliable in its influence and its wealth. They are probably right. We are more content to play the scapegoat game, the kick the can down the road game and the “put it on the back burner game,” than to make hard decisions at all levels. We are soft and complacent and we are more interested in someone sharing his wealth than creating our own, we are entitled after all.
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QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Once again Dick Quinn is on target. The entitlement mentality has been the reason over the ages for advanced civilization to fail. Not only are Tea Party members guilty of this hypocracy, but most of us are as well. While we condemn our legislators for their behavior, those legislators are really smart enough to know that their behavior reflects the “I want my cake and I want it now” and the “I want the best health care that someone else can pay” mentality of the electorate. Without some kind of calamity, in my judgment, it would be difficult to break this ruinous behavior cycle.
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When I was “rich and famous” I would shop and buy the top of the line no matter what the product. Now after watching my spendable income dwindle to pay for the high cost of health care and watching taxes sky rocket to the Moon and Mars with no end insight, I find myself shopping around for Insurance, Cars, generic Medicines and buying store brand items over named brands.
We need to get the employers out of providing insurance and force people to shop and buy from the many insurance providers provided they use fair advertisements and not dupe customers into thinking they can have it all for next to nothing.
We all know there are no “free lunches” why do we keep thinking we need to expect the government and employers to “take care of us”.
I see employers where I now live, cancelling coverages and paying their employees a stipend to go out and shop for health coverage or just go bankrupt and sell out to another company and drop health care all together.
Shop till you drop is what gets most people in trouble but if they truly had to watch what they buy, they will make informed choices. It is easy to spend, spend and spend when you think the government or employers will pay, pay, pay.
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Why not make changes slowly. Wean ourselves off government dependency a little at a time. Why does it have to be all or nothing? Once we expect something (i.e. Social Sec or Medicare ) it is difficult to pull out cold turkey. We could start with the COLA and move slowly towards reducing the benefit amount with new retirees. People need some time to plan for their futures.
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Right you are, but it appears we are headed in exactly the opposite direction.
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Excellent post. I have often thought of this, but in different terms. At one time we paid cash for almost everything. Cars were a good example. Then sometime in the 1960s car loans came into popularity. The problem was that people would often go upside down on their car loans, for a multitude of reasons, but when the car needed to be replaced they needed a car — irrespective of their loan.
So here in Rochester, when Xerox and Kodak were in their heydays, there were annual wage dividends or profit sharing payments made in February each year. So what the car dealers would do, is get a balloon payment from the customer based on the wage dividend. That would allow them to recoup the upside down loan and provide for the credit for the second car. So in a sense the employers rescued the employees.
Then came the housing bubble. With people getting into trouble with their home mortgages. They went upside down, and now the government is having to bail many of them out.
Of course we now have the Government in trouble with all of the entitlement programs. The US is borrowing from other countries, from future generations, etc. But nonetheless the Government has gone ‘upside down’.
Who is going to save them?
My bet — we are going to have to have significant inflation to devalue the debt so that can be paid off. For those of us about to retire, that is a frightening prospect. Back to you Dick…
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