Subject: txt intl mny sclm crpt -
One lesson of Greece is that once the markets stop believing a debt-riddled government, they can turn on it quickly and savagely. It's best not to get anywhere close to that point.
By the calculations of Jagadeesh Gokhale of the Cato Institute, Greece's debt is 875 percent of its GDP when pension obligations are included. Sounds outlandish.
But the figure for the U.S., including programs like Medicare and Social Security, is 500 percent.
The worst thing we could do is to add to the burden with an onerous new spending program, pushed by the unions and justified with Greek-style budgetary math. Of course, that's a working definition of Obamacare.
In Greek tragedy, the hero always realizes his own flaw or mistake too late. Something for retiring public-sector-union honcho Andy Stern to contemplate as he takes his seat -- amazingly enough -- on Pres. Barack Obama's debt commission...
[Would read like a comedic tragedy if it weren't reality - which removes the comedy part.]
READ MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment