Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., recently said that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are going bankrupt and unless current negotiations resolve the problem then all is hopeless.
A Washington Post fact checker debunked that statement indicating that bankruptcy was not a problem for those programs. So who should we believe?
As long as the people, through our federal government can borrow money, then bankruptcy is not the issue. If lenders keep lending, then no one will go bankrupt, period. All anyone has to do is just keep borrowing money to pay bills as they come due.
The trouble with that approach is finding lenders who will keep on lending money. The lenders will not even demand routine payments on the principal amounts of the loans on a routine basis. They just want interest payments, profits on such loans until the term of the loan expires.
Then they demand the principal amount on the loan to be paid in full, and our federal government does exactly that. They pay the principal amount due by, yep, borrowing 40 cents on the dollar to make the lump sum payments to bond holders.
Predicting “bankruptcy” is as much political hyperbole as saying that the federal government needs “just a little bit more” (from the rich). Both statements are designed to gain political advantage, and neither statement reflects the magnitude of the fiscal problems facing America today.
The real and underlying economic problem in America today is that we do not produce enough goods and services that can be sold around the world in a competitive market to grow our economy enough to pay all of our routine bills. Make more “stuff” and sell it around the world and our economy will reach a natural equilibrium.
Political slogans do not produce more things in America. Only Americans can do so, day by day over a lifetime.
Opinion
Our View: Stop the hyperbole
- Opinion
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Other Views: Still inspiring
Cutbacks in the military budget and the still-recovering economy mean this Memorial Day weekend will go down as a relatively subdued affair — relative, that is, to our usual end-of-school, official-start-of-summer blowout.
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Our View: Setting standard
The sight of hundreds of young student volunteers walking across Moore’s Fourth Street interstate overpass had to be uplifting to the city’s tornado victims.
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Our View: Safer schools
Being able to see for ourselves what would have happened to our children had they been standing in the main hall of their schools during the May 22, 2011, tornado had a profound effect on our understanding of safe schools.
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Marilyn Beasley, guest columnist: Claiming responsibility for abuse of power
Over the past few months we’ve witnessed the abuse of power by President Barack Obama and his administration.
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Our View: ‘Why?’ has no answer
Just hours before, there was breakfast and laughter. There were pictures on the walls and memories in every room.
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Our View: Absent from House
We can’t figure out why two Missouri legislators think they should be elected to the U.S. House when it appears they can’t seem to show up to take care of business in the Missouri House.
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Your View: Terrible injustice
I see this Jasper County nuisance law as a terrible injustice on the rights of the residents of Jasper County.
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Your View: Should we be outraged?
Were there effusive apologies following the lockdown of Boston as most of the continent indulged vicariously in the ongoing manhunt?
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Your View: Terrorism is terrorism
In the May 13 issue of The Joplin Globe there was an Associated Press article concerning the New Orleans shooting.
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Phill Brooks, columnist: Missouri Senate did what Founding Fathers had in mind
George Washington once described the Senate as being like a saucer in which you pour coffee or tea.
- More Opinion Headlines
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Other Views: Still inspiring
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