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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Koligman who wrote (10164)	10/5/2009 6:57:56 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

>> I know entitlement programs can last 'indefinitely'. Which entitled program do you know of that can last "indefinitely"? The two big ones -- SS & Medicare -- are dying relatively quick deaths. I know what Tim meant, but in all honesty entitlement programs will run out of money long before any period you could call "indefinite" expires.

To: John Koligman who wrote (10164)	10/6/2009 12:39:35 PM
From: TimF	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Let's revisit that thought a decade from now.. A decade or more than that would still be finite. Also Iraq will be totally over (its mostly over now). And Afghanistan will likely be over at that point as well (and even if it isn't the cost will be small compared to government spending on health care). i-node makes a point that if the cost of entitlements cause a crisis they can fall apart, but absent a real fiscal crises, of the sort we haven't had in the US in modern times, they likely will last indefinitely. Without such a crisis Social Security could easily be around for centuries, only if you count series of wars or lower level conflicts, as one war would you find any "wars" that lasted that long, and even counting them most wars don't last nearly that long, days to maybe a decade or two for conventional wars, months to several decades for counter-insurgency campaigns (and the longer end of the scale is not all that common).