|
 Yesterday, we saw what a massive hole Social Security and other entitlement programs have put our nation into. Social Security is not only the largest U.S. government program, accounting for 23 percent of federal spending, it is the largest government program in the world. The Social Security payroll tax is the largest tax paid by the average American working family. In fact, nearly 80 percent of us pay more in Social Security taxes than we do in federal income taxes.
From the libertarian Cato Institute study “War between the Generations: Federal Spending on the Elderly Set to Explode,”:
In the 1960s, the total consumption of an average 70-year-old was about one-third less than that of an average 30-year-old. But by the late 1980s, an average 70-year-old consumed about one-fifth more than an average 30-year-old. The problem is that most of that elderly consumption is being fueled by transfers from the young. By 2040, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will account for nearly 80 percent of the federal budget. And since today’s elderly are much better off financially and physically, such large entitlements aren’t even necessary. Moreover, the elderly are generally more financially stable than today’s younger workers. But as the young are burdened with the retirement of the old, they are forced to forego their own financial planning, creating a vicious cycle.
To fulfill the great expectations held by those retiring today, “the elderly should work more, entitlement programs should be turned into savings-based systems, and the taxation of savings should be reduced to allow families to build bigger retirement nest eggs,” .
“It is clear that adding an unfunded prescription drug benefit to Medicare moves directly against reform because it puts the program’s spending on an even more unsustainable path,” they write. “Unfortunately , tomorrow’s young taxpayers are not here to defend themselves against the huge burdens that are being foisted on them by Congress.”
There are solutions, but they're never going to be proposed, much less adopted, by legislators from either major party. Why should they take a chance on losing the votes of the elderly (who do vote in large numbers) when it's so much easier to palm the problem off on the next Congress?
Even if Congress should, by some miracle, have guts and honor enough to make some sensible changes in Social Security, there is no assurance that a future Congress will live up to those promises.
If you think I've painted a hopeless picture of the future, you're very close to being right. There is no hope as long as the Democrats and Republicans (or other socialists) continue to dominate the U.S. political scene. That leaves only one hope... a slim one... that a massive number of Americans will decide to reject the comfortable lies of those two parties and shift all their support and help to the Libertarians.
Libertarians will not lie to you... the problems are serious, and the solutions are not going to be without pain. We all face up to hard choices like that in our personal lives. We do what has to be done, even when it's unpleasant. Many of us have had to dig ourselves out of debt, or scale back our standard of living. Many of us work more than one job, or put up with jobs we don't like. In order to do those things, we face the truth and adapt to reality. Americans are known for those qualities... for a face-reality, can-do attitude.
Why then, are we willing to accept the opposite from our political representatives? How can we let them get away with behaving as power and spending addicts, selling our nation far into future debt?
Can you continue to stand by and take no action while our own government becomes more and more hated by people around the world?... while we have 2.1 million citizens in confinement?.. while our personal liberties are being stomped on?... while our economy is gradually being ground down?... and while our children and grandchildren are doomed to face enormous tax loads and no liberty?
If I had more than one solution, I would give them to you, but I know of only one, and it won't work unless millions of us decide to stand up and shout "I'm not going to put up with this any longer!", and channel all of your anger and frustration into working with libertarians to change our nation back into the powerhouse it once was before the socialists destroyed it. I think you know it's right. You may think it can't work... that we can't possibly get control back. You may be right, but if we don't even try, we are doomed to become a "formerly-powerful" society.
Don't think you can just watch and wait for the libertarian movement to become powerful and then join us. That's what far too many people are doing now. Only the most enlightened, dedicated people have joined us to this point, and we cannot do it by ourselves. We are like David fighting Goliath, but our Goliath has made slings into illegal weapons, while he's packin' heavy. In order to compete, we have to become closer to the size of Goliath. I hope you'll do your part and join the Libertarian Party right now, at the highest level you can afford, and then become active in your state party.
Libertarians are fighting for all our rights.
Isn't it time you started fighting for your own? | 
