Debt Commission
By Wes Keene | February 17, 2010 | In Category: Health Care, Tax Policy
Yesterday, I pointed out that Democrats spend first, and tax later. Today we learned that Obama will forcibly create his “debt commission” to look into our soaring national debt and provide recommendations. On its face, no one would criticize the idea of trying to get our debt under control. In Washington you can never take anything on its face.
The uninitiated may think debt reduction could be accomplished by reducing redundant, duplicate, and overlapping government programs. However, that won’t work because each of those programs represents a job for some government worker, and in some cases sends pork back home to a Congressional district. Then there’s Medicare reform. Given that the program is a $32.4 trillion debt entitlement, it would seem like low hanging fruit for a debt commission. That’s a non-starter too, however. Politicians rely on scaring seniors with the specter of Medicare cuts. To actually implement such cuts would (in their minds) be political suicide.
So what are we down to? Well, some question why we need a military presence almost everywhere. Since we spend roughly 29% of the Federal budget on the military, that sure seems like a good place to look for savings. However, Republicans are the party of the military, so that’s a non-starter as well.
Then there are tax hikes.
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