The costs of an expanding long war
Independent Institute
by Paul Sullivan
09/19/06
Our government budget is in the red. Our national debt is quickly approaching $9 trillion. Lawrence Kotlikoff, a top economist from Boston University, argues in a recent paper that the U.S. Government is already bankrupt. This analysis may be an overstatement, but given likely trends in the balances for Social Security, Medicare, and some potentially huge long-term costs for what has become the 'Long War' in Iraq, one could at least say that things don't look so great over the next few years. The situation looks even worse if we consider the increasing structural and political inflexibility of the budget. Mandatory expenditures have been a greatly increasing proportion of the budget over the last decades. An expanding 'Long War' in Iraq is going to be quite a strain on an already stretched budget. Taxes will go up, regardless of what our political leaders say...
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1819
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
by Paul Sullivan
09/19/06
Our government budget is in the red. Our national debt is quickly approaching $9 trillion. Lawrence Kotlikoff, a top economist from Boston University, argues in a recent paper that the U.S. Government is already bankrupt. This analysis may be an overstatement, but given likely trends in the balances for Social Security, Medicare, and some potentially huge long-term costs for what has become the 'Long War' in Iraq, one could at least say that things don't look so great over the next few years. The situation looks even worse if we consider the increasing structural and political inflexibility of the budget. Mandatory expenditures have been a greatly increasing proportion of the budget over the last decades. An expanding 'Long War' in Iraq is going to be quite a strain on an already stretched budget. Taxes will go up, regardless of what our political leaders say...
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1819
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
rudkla - 20. Sep, 19:26
