The welfare state is destroying America

First of a five-part series.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law on Aug. 14, 1935, laying what he described as a "cornerstone" of the modern welfare state.


At the time, Roosevelt claimed that the sweeping program would, "act as a protection to future administrations against the necessity of going deeply into debt to furnish relief to the needy."

He was right about the "cornerstone" part, as both parties built on the program in the decades that followed. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson brought us Medicare and Medicaid.

In 2003, President George W. Bush and a Republican Congress added prescription drug coverage for seniors. And just last year, President Obama pushed a national health care law through Congress.

But Roosevelt was dead wrong that the program would help the nation avoid deep debt. Social Security and the entitlement programs that followed its legacy of seeking to protect citizens from the "hazards and vicissitudes of life," turned out to be fiscal disasters.

With health care costs rising and the population aging, America's welfare-state obligations are bringing the country to its financial knees. If left unchecked, the growing debt burden will not only trigger runaway inflation and stifling taxes, but it will also threaten national security.

Spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare alone currently account for 46 percent -- or nearly half of -- federal spending, excluding interest payments. Over the next 25 years, that percentage will explode to 66 percent, or close to two-thirds, according to the Congressional Budget Office..

Numbers associated with the nation's debt crisis are almost too staggering to comprehend. Last month, total U.S. debt surpassed $15 trillion. But a recent analysis by Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff found that when long-term entitlement obligations are considered, the true fiscal gap is $211 trillion.

CONTINUED:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2012/01/welfare-state-destroying-america/2123391?utm_source=Washington%20Examiner%20Opinion%20Digest%20-%2001/23/2012&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Opinion%20Digest