By 2050, three Federal programs, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, will take all the tax revenue that the government collects, according to a study by the Cato Institute (article).
That means every other activity of the government, from the president’s salary to F-18’s to toilet paper for the restrooms at Yellowstone Park, will have to be financed with borrowed money. Of course the interest on our debt will be through the roof by then, but to pay it we will have to borrow the money.
This astounding revelation means just one thing: We the people need to change our expectations of what government is supposed to do for us, because relatively soon it won’t be able to do much.
Yet the cries from the American people for more and more benefits from the government coffers continue to crescendo. Rich as well as poor look for advantages by appealing to the generosity of politicians eager to curry favor and the resulting votes that will keep them in office. It is a deadly cycle which may not be possible to break, because few, whether homeless drug addicts or multinational corporations, can resist the attraction of thousands of dollars, sent for merely filling in the paperwork.
And yet if we don’t stop the cycle, it will, no MUST come crashing down. And the result will be widespread pain and privation.
