"The unspoken entitlement is the US military. The US spends about half the entire world's military

[midnight]

budget.
1) Social Security, at current rates, is not expected to run short of money before 2037.

2)The simplest way to "fix" Social Security, if you're worried about a "problem" 27 years in the future, is simply to remove the contribution limit. End of problem. Period. Social Security is not in crisis.

3) The reason politicians want to "fix" Social Security is to increase the SS surplus, so they can use it for other things.

4) Medicare has more serious issues. However the simplest way to fix healthcare in the US is to move single payer, which would reduce healthcare per person by one-third. It has worked for every other country in the history of the world that has done it. It will work for the US. Since we've admitted now that everyone deserves health care, and since it's cheaper, and better, why not use the next round of healthcare to fix Medicare by fixing health care?

The unspoken entitlement is the US military. The US spends about half the entire world's military budget. There is, actually, no one in the world who can invade or seriously threaten the US in any fashion. (Is Canada going to invade? Mexico?) You can easily slash the military budget in half and still be so far ahead of any possible combination of enemies that it isn't even close.

And yes, taxes are going to need to go up. Here's a simple fix—tax all income over 5 million at 90%. It won't hurt the economy (the best economy in America's history was back when marginal tax rates were this high in the 50's and 60's). It will mean that the rich, who got almost the entire bailout and whose irresponsibility threw the US into its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression will pay for it."http://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/fiscal-sustainability-facts-and-solution

Something to ponder the next time entitlement programs come up for the chopping block.

[Demeter]

1. A Million Recs a Minute

There will never be a truer, more succinct, never-fail solution to this nation's ills--all of them!

[chill_wind]

2. K & R. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, midnight.

[yurbud]

4. we need a Cold War size military to chase enemies with no air force or navy...

Tells you what bullshit the War on Terror is.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. K & R

[hay rick]

6. K&R

Simple. Obvious. The primary responsibility of the MSM is to deflect attention from the same.

[troubledamerican]

7. Military = Socialism. Military defense contractors = Corporate Socialism

[mistertrickster]

8. I wish I could rec this 100 times. I've been shouting this from the rooftops since forever.

Social Security has a DEDICATED tax which generates more revenue than it pays out. It's not in the same league as the mammoth war taxes that we pay.

Noam Chomsky has pointed out for decades that military expenditures are essentially "welfare for the rich." Tax dollars are funnelled to giant multinational corporations for things like the F-35. Wiki describes it as . . . The United States intends to buy a total of 2443 aircraft for an estimated $323 billion, making it the most expensive defense program ever.

Of course, the plane is already in cost over-run, even though it hasn't been produced yet.

You can't cut the budget without cutting the most expensive thing in the budget--the military.

[Enthusiast]

12. And those increased SS contributions

enacted under Reagan only served to partially pay for his tax cuts for the wealthy and deficit military spending.

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. kick and recommend

[laughingliberal]

10. K & R nt

[pundaint]

11. sounds right

[4dsc]

13. Imagine is this was part of someone's campaign strategy?

I think this would make a great part of anyone platform for running for office..