Quote:You cannot sustainably outlay more services to the present generation than you take in in taxes, and finance it with debt from subsequent generations. We blew through the social security trust fund, through the ability to tax people and corporations, and now we've run out of credit.If the government doesn't stick to PAYGO, then there will be serious problems. However, your picture is much too dire. Tax levels in the US are abnormally low for a developed country. There is certainly room to increase revenue that way, although there will be a corresponding cost in output.
The US government hasn't run out of credit - rates are extremely favourable right now. This is not a situation that can continue indefinitely, but for the moment, the US is in an enviable borrowing position.
Quote:Health care costs are just something the government should abandon, and let the private sector resolve in whatever manner it can. The answer is to get government out of the health care business entirely. States can focus on helping their own poor, but the feds should get themselves out of citizens lives.Health care is a social cost. If it's not paid for by the government, it's paid for in one of two other ways: either private purchases, or through people getting sick and dying without treatment. (I'm going to assume the second option is off the table for now.) We've been over the data a bazillion times already, but once again, if you want to reduce per capita expenditures on health care, you're going to have to reform the health care system. Just giving it over entirely to the private sector will simply shift the burden from public to private - robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Now, since you're ideologically opposed to government, I'm sure this seems like a good thing in any case. But it's not a savings, just a different method of accounting. Money being spent on health care directly is not much different from money being taxed, and then spent on health care - except that it appears to be much less efficient. Health care is already a leading cause of bankruptcies and private debt. How much worse would it get if you revoked all government support? And how much more expensive would emergency care get?
-Jester