Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Alighieri who wrote (16968)	4/17/2010 12:21:11 PM
From: Lane3	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

When the gvt established medicare or SS the presumption was that they would be funded such that there'd be no unfunded debt (liability in this case, since there is no debt just yet). So the expectation is that they would raise taxes, as needed, so the program would never add to the debt. OK. Except that they don't have any control over future appropriations. And except that, the way these programs go, no one ever seems to honor that intention. Their intentions have no weight with future appropriators. The programs just keep on getting bigger and it takes a crisis before anyone even things about putting costs and benefits in balance. The debt just goes up. There's no reason to think that this entitlement would be any different.

To: Alighieri who wrote (16968)	4/18/2010 10:52:48 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Of course they do. When the gvt established medicare or SS the presumption was that they would be funded such that there'd be no unfunded debt (liability in this case, since there is no debt just yet). You do understand that debts and liabilities are the same thing?

To: Alighieri who wrote (16968)	4/18/2010 10:57:16 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

When the gvt established medicare or SS the presumption was that they would be funded such that there'd be no unfunded debt (liability in this case, since there is no debt just yet). There is very little doubt that FDR, looking at SS today, would have considered it to be a failure. It doesn't meet the basic standards of fiscal responsibility FDR himself had set out. The same is true of the unemployment compensation program. FDR spent a lot of money, some of it very wrongheadedly. But he never envisioned his programs devolving into fiscally irresponsible plans such as these and he clearly believed that such programs would and should be considered failures.