Like most people, I look at the state of the US economy with a lot of frustration. We spend too much money. Modest cuts to Social Security—such as delaying the retirement age or paying less to wealthy retirees—would go a long way to reducing our debt. Reducing the debt burden would give people reason to be a little more optimistic about the future. Foreign markets would respond probably respond well.
The challenges we face as a country are extremely solvable. We need to bring in a little more money and cut future spending on entitlement programs and the military. It’s tempting to look at Washington and blame the politicians for not addressing the issues that need to be addressed. Here’s the real problem: Any politician who proposes a legitimate solution to the current problems will not get reelected. It would be nice if politicians were self-sacrificing to the point that they would willingly give up their jobs to get important legislation done. They shouldn’t have to.
Politicians who propose real solutions to real problems will be punished by voters. The real problem is not the politicians, it’s the voters.
The current crop of presidential candidates is saying almost NOTHING about how they would deal with the debt problems (except for Cain and Paul). Why should they? If one of them proposes to cut social security, Obama will hammer him for it. If Obama proposed something similar, they would pound him for it. Ideally, candidates wouldn’t exploit good-faith efforts of their opponents to improve the country. But the real problem is that voters fall for it.
Politicians spend more than we have because that is exactly what the voters want. We want to take care of our seniors, we want to provide people with healthcare, and we want to kill bad guys in turbans—but we don’t want to pay for it. Politicians who propose that we raise taxes to meet our spending commitments won’t get reelected, and politicians who propose that we reduce the scope of government won’t get reelected either. The problem isn’t the politicians.
