I'm not so sure I like all this budget surplus stuff.
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
This means the government has even more of our money to play around with.
The government is taking in more than it budgeted, so they call it a surplus. But it really isn't a surplus because the Social Security trust fund is underfunded. But they call it a surplus anyway. They shouldn't. Frankly, they shouldn't call it a trust fund, either.
A trust fund is generally set up so you can't use it for anything other than its intended purpose. They've been raiding that Social Security trust fund for a long time.
So the surplus really isn't a surplus and the Social Security trust fund isn't really a trust fund.
But for the sake of this column I'll roll with them and pretend there is a surplus.
You know the old saying, "Give him enough rope and he'll hang himself?" I think this is what's happening with our government and its "surpluses."
President Bill just sent us his 2000 budget - $1.8 trillion, the largest in history. I suppose it only follows that the longest economic expansion in history would be followed closely by the largest government budget in history.
Bill's budget asks for billions upon billions in new spending. The biggie is a $195 billion prescription drug plan under Medicare.
All the billions in new spending are justified by the administration because of this long-term, sustainable surplus that we are currently enjoying.
I wish I had Bill's crystal ball. What if this economic prosperity doesn't hold up at the current rate?
It wasn't too long ago that politicians were talking about saving Medicare. Now we're talking about expanding it.
It's like this surplus has intoxicated our leaders.
This prescription drug plan is bad policy regardless of the fiscal impact it will have on the budget.
Bill would extend the drug benefit to all Medicare recipients instead of just the ones who need it.
That is an inefficient luxury but it is a guaranteed vote-getter. One might think Bill would have used some of the vast surplus to restructure Medicare and ensure its financial well-being.
Instead, he proposes making its survival more difficult to achieve by adding yet another benefit.
Once in place, a benefit like the prescription drug plan he has proposed is virtually impossible to remove. If it passes, Bill will have managed to saddle Medicare with yet another expensive debit for years to come.
Ah, so glad for the surplus.
And what about Social Security?
Clinton's hue and cry was "save Social Security first." I guess, in this budget cycle, that has changed to "save Social Security first, right after implementing several hundred billion dollars of new government programs."
The surplus could have been a way for government to fix some of the fiscal problems suffered by Medicare and Social Security.
Instead, it seems government is using the surplus as an excuse for not fixing the existing programs and simultaneously enacting a whole bunch of new ones.
The danger, of course, is that the surpluses will vanish and the programs won't, leading again to deficits.
The irony here is that the big government Bill wants creates more intrusion on the private sector and redirects resources from the economy and into government. That intrusion and redirection of resources threatens the very economy that gave us the surpluses in the first place.
Government never creates a healthy economy. Government drains wealth from a healthy economy.
While Bill wants to slather us in new government programs and give us a modest tax cut, Republicans want to give us a big across-the-board tax cut.
I think they've both got it wrong.
Modest tax relief would be fine. Certainly the taxpayers should benefit from the current economic prosperity they have engineered.
But more than anything, right now, Bill and Congress should be cutting spending, cutting programs and plowing every extra dime into debt reduction, Social Security and Medicare.
A smaller, leaner government not saddled with decades worth of debt is the key to continued economic prosperity.
But that message is lost on them.
Despite all the political posturing, rhetoric and demagoguery over the budget, surpluses and the national debt, one simple truth remains unyielding:
Government never met a dollar it didn't want to pillage from the taxpayer and squander aimlessly. [[In-content Ad]]
This means the government has even more of our money to play around with.
The government is taking in more than it budgeted, so they call it a surplus. But it really isn't a surplus because the Social Security trust fund is underfunded. But they call it a surplus anyway. They shouldn't. Frankly, they shouldn't call it a trust fund, either.
A trust fund is generally set up so you can't use it for anything other than its intended purpose. They've been raiding that Social Security trust fund for a long time.
So the surplus really isn't a surplus and the Social Security trust fund isn't really a trust fund.
But for the sake of this column I'll roll with them and pretend there is a surplus.
You know the old saying, "Give him enough rope and he'll hang himself?" I think this is what's happening with our government and its "surpluses."
President Bill just sent us his 2000 budget - $1.8 trillion, the largest in history. I suppose it only follows that the longest economic expansion in history would be followed closely by the largest government budget in history.
Bill's budget asks for billions upon billions in new spending. The biggie is a $195 billion prescription drug plan under Medicare.
All the billions in new spending are justified by the administration because of this long-term, sustainable surplus that we are currently enjoying.
I wish I had Bill's crystal ball. What if this economic prosperity doesn't hold up at the current rate?
It wasn't too long ago that politicians were talking about saving Medicare. Now we're talking about expanding it.
It's like this surplus has intoxicated our leaders.
This prescription drug plan is bad policy regardless of the fiscal impact it will have on the budget.
Bill would extend the drug benefit to all Medicare recipients instead of just the ones who need it.
That is an inefficient luxury but it is a guaranteed vote-getter. One might think Bill would have used some of the vast surplus to restructure Medicare and ensure its financial well-being.
Instead, he proposes making its survival more difficult to achieve by adding yet another benefit.
Once in place, a benefit like the prescription drug plan he has proposed is virtually impossible to remove. If it passes, Bill will have managed to saddle Medicare with yet another expensive debit for years to come.
Ah, so glad for the surplus.
And what about Social Security?
Clinton's hue and cry was "save Social Security first." I guess, in this budget cycle, that has changed to "save Social Security first, right after implementing several hundred billion dollars of new government programs."
The surplus could have been a way for government to fix some of the fiscal problems suffered by Medicare and Social Security.
Instead, it seems government is using the surplus as an excuse for not fixing the existing programs and simultaneously enacting a whole bunch of new ones.
The danger, of course, is that the surpluses will vanish and the programs won't, leading again to deficits.
The irony here is that the big government Bill wants creates more intrusion on the private sector and redirects resources from the economy and into government. That intrusion and redirection of resources threatens the very economy that gave us the surpluses in the first place.
Government never creates a healthy economy. Government drains wealth from a healthy economy.
While Bill wants to slather us in new government programs and give us a modest tax cut, Republicans want to give us a big across-the-board tax cut.
I think they've both got it wrong.
Modest tax relief would be fine. Certainly the taxpayers should benefit from the current economic prosperity they have engineered.
But more than anything, right now, Bill and Congress should be cutting spending, cutting programs and plowing every extra dime into debt reduction, Social Security and Medicare.
A smaller, leaner government not saddled with decades worth of debt is the key to continued economic prosperity.
But that message is lost on them.
Despite all the political posturing, rhetoric and demagoguery over the budget, surpluses and the national debt, one simple truth remains unyielding:
Government never met a dollar it didn't want to pillage from the taxpayer and squander aimlessly. [[In-content Ad]]