The sweet potatoes at Virgil’s Barbecue in Times Square taste like pie. Yummy, delicious, tasty pie.
March 2006 Archives
This afternoon I ran across an article on Newsvine discussing the president’s efforts to consolidate power to the executive branch and limit the ability or efficacy of efforts by the other two federal branches to limit his power. The piece isn’t written by a professional journalist, but it is very well documented, with links to FindLaw discussions about the relevant main topics. The main ideas sound on their face to be very doom and gloom and slightly paranoid, but the evidence is damning and striking.
My newest nephew arrived slightly ahead of schedule on 14 March, 2006. That’s his big brother Preston with him in the picture. Word on the street is he is way cuter than your new nephew, son, daughter, grandchild… sorry, but us Levie’s are cute people, what can I say?
There is an article in the NY Times today that talks about the effects No Child Left Behind’s testing requirements are having on many school districts around the US. Schools are reducing the time students are spending in classes other than math and reading—often dramatically or completely—in order to increase class time for the two subjects that are tested under NCLB. What I found particularly interesting, other than the obvious overemphasis on math and reading to the detriment of everything else, is that gym class in all cases seems to escape the axe. Can someone please explain to me why gym class should ever be considered more important than any actual academic subject when we are supposedly trying to reemphasize our commitment to education?
Everyone knows that when President Bush took office there was a federal surplus of 2.4% of GDP or about $235 billion. It is also common knowledge that the surplus promptly disappeared during the recession caused, at least in part, by the burst of the dot-com bubble. But were you aware that at the same time, in 2000, the federal debt of the United States was at $5.7 trillion while today it sits at $8.3 trillion and is expected to reach $10 trillion by the time the president leaves office in 2009?
Among its several other distasteful failings, the GOP has proven that it cannot control spending when it is control of the executive and legislative branches simultaneously. In the period between 1948 and 1980, when Reagan took office, the federal debt held steady at about $1.7 trillion. It has since risen steadily, except during the tenure of President Clinton and the concurrent Republican congresses.
And it’s only going to get dramatically worse from here on out. For years presidents and politicians have been screaming about Social Security’s huge future shortfalls. Eventually the program will have to be saved, modified, or scrapped. And that’s true, it does need to be fixed, and soon. But here’s something I did not know until this morning:
According to the 2005 Medicare trustees report, the future unfunded liability for Medicare Part A is 2.5 percent of G.D.P. in perpetuity (page 64). The unfunded liability of Medicare Part B is 2.7 percent of G.D.P. (page 101). And the unfunded liability of Medicare Part D, the drug benefit, is 1.9 percent of G.D.P. (page 112). In other words, we would need to increase taxes by 7.1 percent of G.D.P. immediately and forever just to pay for all the Medicare benefits that have been promised — an amount close to what is now raised by the individual income tax.
By the way, the 2005 Social Security trustees report says that the unfunded liability of that program, which Mr. Bush told us over and over again was in dire need of a fix last year, has an unfunded liability of just 1.2 percent of G.D.P. (page 60) — virtually nothing compared to Medicare’s problems.
Remember that huge Medicare bill President Bush rammed through congress a few years ago? The changes to Medicare made then will cause mandatory spending (the money that congress must spend each year on entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, etc., and does not include defense, education, etc.) to rise to 21% or GDP from 9.8% today. Where are those revenues going to come from if we are now only paying 7.1% of GDP in income taxes? New taxes folks, and big ones.
It is time for regular Americans to listen up, shack off their disgusting apathy and disinterest in the details of what happens in Washington and pay attention. It will do us all some good for more people to realize that our politicians are selling us down the river today, tomorrow, and for as long as we allow them to continue.
