America’s Financial Future: A Dirt Sandwich?

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 3:04 pm by Max Lindenman

America’s Financial Future: A Dirt Sandwich? 2015-03-13T15:04:35-06:00 Max Lindenman

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Today in Slate, William Saletan that our country’s left-right ideological divode will soon be rendered irrelevant — by its creditors, of all people. The deal they force on America will involve both tax hikes and entitlement cuts — in other words, the worse of both worlds. As he explains:

Their message was delivered on Friday by Standard & Poor’s, which issues global credit ratings. S&P is downgrading the U.S. because our debt is out of control. The company explains:
When comparing the U.S. to sovereigns with ‘AAA’ long-term ratings that we view as relevant peers—Canada, France, Germany, and the U.K.—… the trajectory of the U.S.’s net public debt is diverging from the others. … in contrast with the U.S., we project that the net public debt burdens of these other sovereigns will begin to decline, either before or by 2015.
In other words, it’s safer to invest in these countries than in us. If investors agree, there goes our gravy train. To keep borrowing money, we’ll have to pay higher interest. Loans will become more expensive, the economy will slow, and our debt will increase in a vicious circle. No anti-tax or Medicare-protection pledge will stop this merciless strangulation.

Our politicians, still catering to the right and left, are reacting to the downgrade by blaming each other. They aren’t getting the message. The debate between higher taxes and deep entitlement cuts is over. Our creditors are going to make us do both.
Advertisement

The $2 trillion deal we just agonized over is peanuts. S&P projects that U.S. debt will reach 85 percent of our gross domestic product within a decade, and we’re approaching an “inflection point on the U.S. population’s demographics and other age-related spending drivers,” which will accelerate our insolvency. In case you missed the implicit message of “demographics” and “age-related,” the company spells it out: Last week’s debt agreement “envisions only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements, the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability.”

I have little to say on the subject; I’m too busy planning for the non-future. Still, Saletan’s piece strikes me as the perfect way to start a Monday.

Uncategorized

economy

politics

Previous Post

August 5, 2011

Clerical Narcissism: Myth or Mess?

Next Post

August 9, 2011 Riots and the Antisocial Media

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month August 2016 July 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 February 2015 January 2015 July 2014 April 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz