The only discouraging thing about these "mainstream" figures shouting about this problem is that their solutions (which Walker's committee has already suggested) amount to "tweaking" the programs instead of phasing them out. Walker, whom I applaud for getting this issue legs, still views it as an accounting problem, as his solutions are "either an increase in tax revenues, a decrease in benefit spending, or both." This group of people are never going to call into question the entitlement system itself. The entitlement system requires an income tax, and more and more I believe that you can trace America's decline to the institution and growth of the income tax (along with help from the Federal Reserve).

The idea that you can siphon off a percentage of the fruits of labor and pay it directly to someone else just doesn't work. If you view the average family as a business, it is not making a 28% profit when you subtract its operating expenses (mortgage/rent, food, utilities, gasoline, etc). Yet, the government is nevertheless taking that percentage right off the top of their "revenue," and that doesn't include all of the other taxes that family pays to the state, the local county, etc.

Somehow, we must get out the idea that phasing out the entitlement system is a viable option. Unfortunately, fiscal realities mean this: A generation (or two) of Americans are going to have to pay into the system while getting less or none of the benefits that they are paying for. Even ending the overseas empire will not fund the present entitlement obligations without taxing those who will eventually not have the benefits. This is a hard sell, but is the only way.

Without the drag of an income tax, we would return to the exploding growth and innovation that we had before we instituted it and which we haven't really seen since.

Oh, and by the way, we'd actually be a free people once again, in case anyone cares. :)

Tom Mullen

www.tommullen.net
www.myspace.com/skepticsongs

David Walker, who appears in the film, is the former head of the Government Accountability Office. Walker resigned his position with GAO earlier this year to head up the Peter G. Peterson Foundation that will focus on addressing skyrocketing government spending and high health care costs. For anyone who missed it, this was an article from last August about David Walker's warning about the state of our economy. When I read it then, I was struck with how similar his position on the state of the economy was to that of Ron Paul.

The article says that Walker would not be briefing the Presidential candidates about these issues until this past spring, which would obviously be too late to effect their positions during the primaries. It was surreal to watch the debates last fall when the other Republicans were rolling their eyes, laughing at, and otherwise mocking Ron Paul for saying we were in a recession and heading for an economic collapse when the head of the GAO was making the same warnings.

Both Walker and Dr. Paul say that Congress has dug themselves into a hole of debt and need to stop digging. Now, America should start to realize how wrong the other candidates (both Republicans who didn't want to admit we have a problem and Democrats who want to make it worse with more "stimulus" packages, socialized health care, and socialized housing) are and how right Ron Paul is.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/80fa0a2c-49ef-11dc-9ffe-0000779fd2ac.html

David Walker was on Glenn Beck last night. I couldn't find the video, but here is a link to the transcript:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/17/gb.01.html

I know there will probably be lots of comments on how Peterson was the former Chairman of the CFR, but hopefully that won't be a distraction from the message that we are destroying our country with debt and need to become fiscally responsible if we want to save her.

Tenacious accountability can bring real change. If we don't hold them accountable, the politicians will slip away, falsely claiming they were fighting to correct the GFI (Generational Fiscal Imbalance) all along.
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I propose we build a very simple list right away. On one side, all of the officials who were on record on July 4, 2008, as "frequently and emphatically urging massive govt spending reductions to address the GFI" and on the other side, all those who were not.

The responsible and courageous side includes Ron Paul, David Walker and very few others (McCain's fiscal responsibility rests solely on his so-called crusade against earmarks, which are paltry in sum and totally unrelated to the coming entitlement disaster; in fact any pro-war, pro-Medicare bill Republican cannot claim to be on the right side of this issue), and on the other, all the congressman, governors, executive branch officials who are not on record.

July 4, 2008 is exactly 4 months before the election. If you were not on record then, you are part of the problem, plain and simple, and that will be used against you when you are next on the ballot.

IOUSA, Walker, Perot as of this week... this story is building. We cannot let the people whose job it is to safeguard the country's future get away with jumping on the bandwagon when it rolls by.

Build this list on BTM now!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ywoRULi6TFs
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Iiwk_XPDlTY
http://youtube.com/watch?v=z_HhC_QS7V8