Comment Re:The problem with most environmentalist ideas (Score 1) 466
Note that Medicare/Medicaid(Fed only)/SSA is ALREADY the majority of the budget
No they are not. SSA plus Dept of Health and Human Services (which includes Medicare and Medicaid) for 2012 totaled 1.701 Trillion, while the total enacted budget was 3.796 Trillion.
As to raising taxes and/or reducing the military, neither is going to have a huge long-term effect on the deficit.
What? If we reduce spending on the military by 200 billion/year, that will definitely have a long-term impact on the deficit. If we raise revenues by any appreciable amount, the same is true. Yes, there is disagreement about how much extra revenue will be raised by tax increases... but that does not mean its impact would be negligible.
The real deficit driver for the foreseeable future is Medicare spending (which is expected to be the majority of the budget within a couple decades).
Medicare expenditures are currently roughly 3.6% of GDP, in the 500-600 billion range. They are expected to increase to 6% of GDP as the baby boomers age, then level off around 2040... which would make them about 1.2 Trillion on this year''s budget. This is much less than half.
Furthermore, the ACA and the recession have reduced the rate of growth of Medicare expenditures, and now Medicare costs are growing at the same rate as the rest of the economy. The CBO forecast is confident that this decrease in growth rate will last at least a few more years, and many experts think this reduction in growth rate is somewhat permanent.
In short, you exaggerate in order to make the case for entitlement cuts. Boo on you.