People We Elect

This is an interesting paper I found on the Senate Democratic website from 2004. I highlighted some of the more notable sections:

"We were deeply concerned that these new deficits – unlike those which emerged in the early 1980s – posed an even greater economic threat to the country because of the nation’s current demographic profile: the aging of the U.S. population vastly compounds the problem. The
“baby boom” generation is now but one presidential election cycle away from retirement. We also have a relatively low fertility rate which will mean an economy with many more retirees and proportionately far fewer workers. The growing demands of our aging population for health services will therefore expand dramatically and entail escalating costs, and the result will be less public and private national saving and fewer resources available for economic growth. "

"The U.S. government is, to some extent, like an individual or a household: neither can continue indefinitely to have its debt rise at a rate faster than its income growth. Exploding deficits today – particularly during a period when we are about to experience a retirement boom, the likelihood of continuing sharp increases in health care expenditures, and a slow-down in the growth of our workforce which additional immigration cannot reverse – pose a grave risk to our economic well-being in ways that have never been experienced before."

"The policy recommendations were:
1. CED strongly opposes any short-term stimulus program that is not combined with a plan to restore longer-term budget balance.
2. CED believes it is urgent to implement a disciplined budget process that can address the longterm fiscal issues that face us.
3. CED calls on the President and Congress to establish a goal of balancing the budget (or producing a surplus) excluding the “off-budget” Social Security accounts over a rolling five-year horizon.
4. CED reiterates its proposal to restructure Social Security into a two-tier system.
5. CED reiterates its earlier recommendation that the federal government restructure the Medicare program along the lines of the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program.
6. CED believes that, whatever the level of spending, the defense and security budgets must be cost-effective and focused sharply on our new national security situation. We urge the Administration and the Congress to rapidly establish national defense priorities and program reforms to accomplish this.
7. CED recommends that we reduce the growth of non-security discretionary spending below its historical level and far below the 9 percent annual growth of the past three years.
8. CED believes that education reform is too important to be allowed to fail; the federal government, which has mandated a national effort, is obligated to assist the states in making it work.
9. CED once again urges the Administration and Congress to make basic research a high priority in the federal budget.
10. CED believes it is extremely unlikely that the long-term budget problem can be solved without additional revenues. We therefore urge the Administration and Congress to forego at this time any additional tax reductions (including the permanent extension of The Economic
Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act) that would further reduce long-term revenues."

As you read this think about what they are saying; Old people cost too much to take care of, they do not produce taxable income-useless eaters. Why border 'security' is a joke, we are inoculated so heavily that we do not produce new taxpayers at a rate fast enough to pay for the old people, even with increased immigration. Don't expect our friends from the south to be locked out anytime soon. It does not matter how much you think you have to say about what your kids learn about in school, the Federal Government is in the business of programming the future 'worker bees'. Its nice to see that you work hard to save for retirement but that money is never really yours, its just a tax in another form, kind of a legacy tax. I saw a book from the 50's about the pension idea; solving the problem because people used to work until they died, say in their 60's, better human environments caused them to outlive their working years so they needed a method of surviving. This book describes the how and why pensions were developed. As many retirees have found out though, pensions may evaporate due to corporate restructuring of health care coverage, punishment for living into retirement. When I read this document I can't help but get a sense that the only purpose we the worker bees serve is to produce, produce and die. So why do you vote? Stop it!
Everyday you are told to make changes you have to voice your opinion at the voting booth, how important it is to vote, voting is cool, rock the vote! Sound familiar, why do 'they' want you to vote so bad?

Freedom NOT To Vote,
Tim Hilliard