Coming soon: a “day of fiscal reckoning that will make this bleak and anxious autumn seem like a season in the sun”
The Dallas Morning News reminds us how deep the rabbit hole goes:
While the current crisis is understandably top of voters’ minds, it’s actually small beer compared with what America faces in a few years, when the federal government has to make good on its Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security promises to retiring baby boomers.
We’re looking at a $53 trillion projected deficit — or $455,000 per household.
Anti-deficit crusaders Peter G. Peterson and David Walker went so far as to buy an ad in The New York Times, trying to rouse voters to the desperate need for entitlement reform, barely a blip on the campaign radar.
It is nothing short of appalling that both presidential candidates and their running mates have repeatedly ducked direct debate questions asking them to name specific spending cuts they would make in light of the $700 billion the bailout would add to the federal deficit. It is a dead certainty that the next president and Congress must look hard at taxing and spending priorities to deal with the debt disaster.
I doubt the next Congress will “look hard” at taxes or spending. Making hard choices is not Congress’ forte.
My own guess is that we’ll ultimately default on our debt. After all, in the absence of confiscatory taxes increases, harrowing spending cuts, or both, we can’t pay.