By Alec Parent
If you could foresee the next great economic crisis years in advance, wouldn’t you want something done about it? Most people would, but judging by their actions, the majority of elected officials in Congress wouldn’t. What is the cause of this looming crisis you ask?
Entitlements.
Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and Obamacare will be the cause of the next great economic crisis. They are unfunded liabilities that will continue to grow and grow until finally we can no longer support the crushing weight of the money owed to them.
Even excluding the money that Obamacare will cost to fund, data from the Congressional Budget Office shows that by 2052 entitlements will consume all tax revenues. This chart also excludes the huge sums of money that the government will spend to fund its other social welfare programs.
Even more ominous is the fact that compared to spending on entitlements, the billions of dollars in other spending appears to be a drop in the bucket.
All the facts are pointing towards a huge economic collapse, but why does it seem like nothing is being done to prevent it. The answer is easy, because it is political suicide. Entitlement reform is called the third rail of politics for a reason. Whenever an elected official put forward ideas to combat the entitlement crisis, his or her opponents immediately accuse he or she of trying to take away Social Security or Medicare from the elderly.
Another motive for the lack of action by our elected officials is that they will most likely never suffer the consequences of the entitlement crisis. Most of them will either be dead or out of office when the crisis hits (although with the recent increase in spending and passage of Obamacare that crisis is looming closer and closer in the future). Why would a self-interested politician risk reelection when they wouldn’t suffer the consequences of inaction? The only politician thus far that has proposed a plan to avoid this crisis is Paul Ryan and his Roadmap for America’s Future. I have great respect for Rep. Ryan for taking this huge political risk to help prevent the looming economic crisis. I hope that other politicians will also take his serious approach to entitlements rather than playing politics.
The problem is that while those currently in power won’t suffer the consequences of the entitlement crisis, somebody will. That somebody is my generation. If we continue down our path of massive spending, entitlements, and European-style social welfare programs then people my age will be forced to pay the bill. This will mean middle class tax rates in the excess of 30% and a significantly lower quality of life than what we have now.
So, politicians in Washington, is that what you want your legacy to be?
Alec Parent is the founder and editor-in-chief of nextgenbloggers.com
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