LOL. We? Do you have a mouse in your pocket? The Dems control the Senate and the WH. They don't want to remove these programs from automatic pilot. In case you haven't heard, we just added another huge entitlement program called the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) that amounts to a government takeover of one-sixth of the economy.
Require raises to actually be voted upon by Congress, out in the open. But the time to do that is before the money has been spent, not after.
The increases go automatically into effect based on COLA indices. SS retirees are claiming that they don't get enough COLA as it is. The SS "DI Trust Fund goes bust in 2016 and will require Congress to pump money into it or else disability payments will be reduced. From the Trustees Report:
DI Trust Fund asset reserves, which have been declining since 2008, are projected to be fully depleted in 2016, as reported last year. Payment of full DI benefits beyond 2016, when tax income would cover only 80 percent of scheduled benefits, will require legislation to address the financial imbalance, possibly including a reallocation of the OASDI payroll tax rate between OASI and DI.
The drawdown of Social Security and HI Trust Fund reserves and the general revenue transfers into SMI will result in mounting pressure on the Federal budget. In fact, pressure is already evident. For the seventh consecutive year, the Social Security Act requires that the Trustees issue a “Medicare funding warning” because projected non-dedicated sources of revenues�primarily general revenues�are expected to continue to account for more than 45 percent of Medicare’s outlays in 2013, a threshold breached for the first time in fiscal year 2010.
The notion that we somehow have more “leverage” with the debt ceiling is pure fantasy, and not very helpful.
It is the only real leverage the GOP has. You are the one living in a fantasy world. Unless the GOP draws a line in the sand and says no more until we address entitlement reform, Obama has a blank check without limits. Ultimately, the entire economy collapses. The Dems want to increase taxes to make up the shortfall. That may be the way we are headed. The Democrats have already pushed thru $2,8 trillion in new tax increases over the next decade. We are taking in record revenue, $2.8 trillion and still running $700 billion deficits.
As I indicated, there in sense in further discourse with you. You have no specific recommendations on cutting spending. The Dems prefer to tax and spend and have no willingness to cut the entitlement programs. And the GOP really doesn't either. We are headed over the cliff.
Thank you, good day and God bless.