Have you ever heard those that want to slash the US New Deal-inspired Safety Net programs of Social Security, Medicaire, Medicaid? Such as Pete Peterson, David M Walker, etc?
They throw out some huge number such as the "real national debt" is 60 Trillion if you "count unfunded liabilities such as SSN, Medicare, Medicaid".
First of SSN IS funded & taking in more $ than it spends until 2040 or so. Even after that, the "problem" by several ways. One obvious way is eliminate the tax cap. Currently Joe UpperMiddleClass that makes $107K pays the same SSN tax as Bill Gates, since the tax is capped at the first $107K in income. Without the cap Gates would be paying ~10,000X as Joe UMC.
As Dr Dean Baker has pointed out, Medicare & Medicaid, although still much cheaper in admin costs than private health insurance, are too expensive because of US health care cartel interests, that get paid excessively compared to any other rich world country.
But put that aside for a second.
Why do the Pete Peterson types never talk about the Trillions in costs for the Net Present Value of all funding for the
Military Industrial Complex
Corporate Welfare
Wall $treet Welfare
Overly broad Patent system which often creates cartel industries & stifles innovation
etc
It's like the NPV of all future spending which might help Average Joe, eg SSN, Medicare, Medicaid; must be funded & accounted for NOW.
But Cartel/Rich Welfare programs that benefit at most the richest 2% & in many cases 0.1% or 0.01% of Americans? No they must not be accounted for NEVER.
Am I missing something obvious? Or am I correct? You tell me.
