U.S is long-term bankrupt

Teabaggers will like what Kotlikoff has to say about cutting entitlement programs (just not their entitlements), but they'll hate what he has to say about raising taxes.

The truth is that we can't reduce our national debt without a combination of spending cuts and tax hikes. Anybody who tells you different is a political hack.

So the real questions are: (1) what programs do you cut and how much; and (2) whose taxes do you raise and how much? Any ideologue who won't get specific on those two questions is a hack.

When it comes to spending we're not talking about just cutting "pork." We must cut red meat & bone: Defense, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And when it comes to cutting taxes we're not talking about just closing loopholes. We're talking about massive tax increases (14% of GDP, according to the IMF) on corporations and the richest 1-5% of Americans.


U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don't Even Know It
By Laurence Kotlikoff
August 11, 2010 Bloomberg

URL: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/u-s-is-bankrupt-and-we-don-t-even-know-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html