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Originally Posted by Synikul  Domestic entitlements are a bit different from security issues, but I'll bite.
The surplus never existed. It was based on projections that couldn't account for events that would affect the economy. The projections were made in the late 90s and ignored the natural business cycle. The economy goes up and down no matter who we vote for, at some point around the mid term of the next president, no matter who it is, the economy will take a down turn, and that's if we don't have any more cataclysmic events, which is unlikely. The surplus projections assumed that the econmy would just keep going up and up and up forever. It was a political document designed to help Gore in the 2000 election. If you remember, which you probably don't, during the 2000 campaign Bush was predicting a recession and the newsmedia was howling about it. |
The existance of any surplus prior to 2000 was no doubt arguable. But at least it was arguable. Now, however, thanks to that unecessary mess in Iraq that we've poured several hundred BILLION dollars into, even the remotest chance of doing anything useful with Social Security or Medicare has evaprated.
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Originally Posted by Synikul I remember it because the economy was going south before the election. I lost a job over it. |
...and I lost a business as a direct result of the effect of the Iraqi war on the economy...
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Originally Posted by Synikul Then we had the Enron debacle, which spilled over into the rest of the economy, then 9/11. It's a goddamn miracle we weren't all standing in soup lines after all those hits. That tells you how resilient the US economy really is. |
Yep, it's resilient alright. It has, thus far, managed to withstand the onslaught of a war that is less useful and more expensive than Vietnam.
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Originally Posted by Synikul In spite of Bush having the pure huge balls to make Social Security reform part of his campaign through two elections, congress stopped it because they are still stuck in the mindset that if you touch SS in any way, you will be voted out. The only medicare reform that has happened was to add a huge new drug program. That's why SS and Medicare were unsolvable. The political will to do so doesn't exist yet, |
On this we agree
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Originally Posted by Synikul and it won't until all you young'uns get pissed off about your payroll taxes going up and up and up after the baby-boomers retire, which WILL happen. |
young'ung?
I was in boot camp before you were in grade school.