Biden is a supreme coward. No vision, no principles, no courage to do what is right.
He just does whatever he is told to do by the spendthrift far-left "progressive" socialist dolts who are hell-bent on dragging the USA down the road to financial ruin.
Another Ugly Beltway Consensus
Democrats and Republicans rule out entitlement reform.
James Freeman
Feb. 8, 2023 5:48 pm ET
There may be some downsides to having an 80-year-old running the country. But among the benefits ought to be wisdom, an understanding of history and a focus on the legacy that will be left for future generations.
Right now America’s children need President Joe Biden’s leadership in addressing the country’s massive and rapidly rising debt burden. Yet on Tuesday night the president clarified that he has no intention of providing it. Mr. Biden is so committed to rejecting Republicans’ efforts to restrain spending that in his State of the Union address he spent time attacking reforms they’re not even proposing.
It would be one thing if Mr. Biden were attempting to make an economic case that the government can finance massive annual deficits forever without consequence—or that the numbers published by his Treasury and the Congressional Budget Office are wrong. But he’s simply
ignoring the problem and rejecting even the idea of discussing spending reforms as he seeks congressional approval for more borrowing.
Speaking of CBO, today Congress’s official budget scorekeeper delivered the latest terrible news for the future taxpayers who will someday need to pay for all of this:
The federal budget deficit was $459 billion in the first four months of fiscal year 2023, the Congressional Budget Office estimates—$200 billion more than the shortfall recorded during the same period last year. Outlays were 9 percent higher and revenues were 3 percent lower from October through January than during the same period in fiscal year 2022.
Nearly half a trillion in just four months!
In just two years of the Biden administration total public debt outstanding has increased by $3.7 trillion. And of course Mr. Biden was an enthusiastic supporter of the lockdown pandemic strategy that contributed to an increase of more than $4 trillion in federal debt the year before he took office. Then there’s the big spending he advocated in his more than four decades as a senator and then vice president.
The federal debt burden is now bigger than our economy, without even counting the much larger burden of promised future benefits from entitlement programs. Yet Mr. Biden—along with his Republican opposition in Congress—is ruling out all the obvious reforms to restrain future spending. The bipartisan consensus, supported by our president, is to reject consideration of any changes in entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, even though the officials who oversee these programs keep explaining why they need to be changed.
The Social Security Administration summarizes the 2022 annual report from the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees:
Social Security and Medicare both face long-term financing shortfalls under currently scheduled benefits and financing....
The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund, which pays retirement and survivors benefits, will be able to pay scheduled benefits on a timely basis until 2034...
The Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund, or Medicare Part A, which helps pay for services such as inpatient hospital care, will be able to pay scheduled benefits until 2028...
Lawmakers have many policy options that would reduce or eliminate the long-term financing shortfalls in Social Security and Medicare.
Taking action sooner rather than later will allow consideration of a broader range of solutions and provide more time to phase in changes so that the public has adequate time to prepare.
The president has forged a bipartisan agreement not to talk about the subject, ensuring that the public has as little time as possible to prepare. This is a disgraceful abdication of leadership. National Review’s Philip Klein opines:
Watching leaders, many at or near retirement age, agree to do absolutely nothing to address this problem is
an act of fiscal violence against younger Americans.
Violence may be a strong word, and absent market-based reform the future doesn’t look so hot for beneficiaries, either. But clearly younger Americans face the largest financial burdens.
Mr. Biden is the most responsible official with the most authority to solve the problem and he’s essentially telling young people to find some other adult to care about their financial futures. Haven’t America’s kids suffered enough under his Covid policies?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/another...us-11675896495