Politicians and money
Most of us know that politicians, left, right and center like spending money, especially money that is not their own.
But there’s another aspect of this that some of us might not realize:
The Milwaukee School Board has spent 20 years ignoring a “fiscal time bomb” in the form of generous and unfunded health insurance benefits for retired MPS teachers and staff that will cost the district $5 billion by 2016, according to a new report by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.
via Milwaukee schools face booming retiree health care costs – JSOnline.
I know. It’s surprising isn’t it?
We’re seeing the same thing in health care where there are plenty of accounting gimmicks. Social Security is another. The alleged trust fund has been raided over the years to pay for deficits in the regular budget.
Yes, there are consequences. But if they are far enough down the road like the MPS and Social Security, the politicians will be long out of office before the piper has to be paid.
Parties switch Medicare roles
For decades, Republicans scraped and clawed to cut money from Medicare. But these days, they’re talking as if they created the popular health care program for seniors.
And Democrats — seeking to trim more than $450 billion from the safety net for seniors over the next 10 years to help finance a sweeping health reform bill — are having to swallow their old rants against cutting the program.
via Parties switch Medicare roles – – POLITICO.com.
This is nothing new, of course. Political parties have been switching sides for years. Republicans used to be the “progressive” party, then an isolationist party, then the anti-deficit party (well, unless we’re cutting taxes), then….well, you get the drift. Democrats likewise have switched sides with the Republicans.
Sometimes it takes years; at other times, simply months.
At this particular phase, we have Medicare. No one wants to lose the senior vote; they vote most regularly of all the demographics.
Hence the current posturing. Remember a few years back? Republicans wanted to make some changes to Social Security. Democrats said no and so did the seniors and it was dropped never to be heard of again.
If money can be trimmed, I don’t see a problem. But in this day and age of “Gotcha!” politics, the Democrats will yield and a chance for saving money (which Republicans are in favor of, if I remember right) will pass by again.
Bailout payout tops $8 trillion
It’s a package of about $8.7 trillion dollars’ worth of potential taxpayer commitments for loans, guarantees and other bailout goodies for businesses and distressed homeowners.
Wow. That’s a lot. But there’s good news,
There is a bright side, sort of. Only about $2.9 trillion of the government money, loans and guarantees have actually been spent or committed.
That’s a relief.