Fiscal obesity

During the Clinton presidency we were fiscally trim, consuming revenue at a rate lower than it was created. We were able to store a surplus, to be used to reduce the national debt. The 8 years that followed Clinton were years of national economic
disaster. We undertook a two front war in distant theatres, financed off-budget,
while at the same time cutting taxes. That converted our budget process from "pay
as you go" to "pass the bills to the next generation". We embarked on a borrowing binge of incalculable dimension at a time when our outlays were increasing at a geometric rate. The military build-up to sustain the wars, plus the cost of caring for the veterans, plus the costs of nation building and rebuilding of the countries we were breaking, plus the fraud and waste that are endemic in wars, were
not offset by the growth of the military-industrial complex. Military expenditures are not investments in long term economic expansion. They are the least
productive use of national resources.
Now, in recession, the costs for Medicare and Medicaid are growing at an unsustainable rate. Yet the congress is unwilling to deal with one of the major cost centers---the built-in expense in the private insurance market.
With multiple vendors, each
with expense loads of 30% or more on top of the benefits payed out, it is almost
impossible to get control of those costs.
Changing the players in the election game of musical chairs will not solve our
problems. Changing the mind set of the politicians to put the interests of the nation before the interests of party, should be the priority. They can then change the public attitudes. That is the essential effort we need to make in this election.