BCT Editorial – 2/28/08

This page was last updated on February 28, 2008.

The point of no return; Editorial; Beaver County Times; February 28, 2008.

The editorial’s subtitle is “Nation’s mounting problems must be addressed before it is too late to act on them.”

Below is a critique of selected portions of the editorial.

“Matters are even bleaker in regard to Medicare and Medicare [sic]. Under current conditions, these entitlements cannot be sustained.”

[RWC] No kidding. As I wrote in my critique of “No easy way out,” “All I can ask is, why did it take the Times 40+ years (from Medicaid’s birth as a “Great Society” program) to figure this out? Name an earnings and/or property redistribution program that has worked over the long term. These programs work only for the bureaucrats and politicians who redistribute the earnings and property.” Face it, this was foreseen decades ago by everyone with even a basic understanding of elementary economics.

You’ll notice the editorial doesn’t suggest any solutions. That’s because the Times can’t make any credible recommendations based on its underlying liberal ideology. Why? They’ve all been tried before and they all failed.

The only viable long-term solution is to gradually phase out programs like Medicaid, Medicare, SCHIP, PACE, et cetera and allow people to take care of themselves. Do I believe people who need help because of unforeseen circumstances should get it? Of course, but via private charities funded by voluntary contributions.

“Spending on infrastructure is also a sound investment in people. It creates good-paying jobs with wages that are recycled through the economy, not transferred overseas.”

[RWC] This was FDR’s approach during the Great Depression and it didn’t work. Don’t get me wrong; infrastructure requires maintenance but many of us are too enamored of building new stuff at the expense of maintaining what we have. The idea, however, that public works projects provide some great economic stimulus is bogus. The dollars extracted from taxpayers and spent on public works projects would otherwise be spent by income earners on other goods and services.

“Our nation’s problems are fast approaching the point where they will be beyond the point of no return. That’s why it is so important that the next president of this country must be able to put aside differences and work for the common good of all.”

[RWC] The Times editorial board has either a defective or selective memory. When President Bush proposed changes to help Socialist Security, they were the recommendations of the bipartisan President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security. One of the Commisssion cochairmen was former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) and he supported the proposal. No one ever questioned Moynihan’s liberal credentials. As we all remember, the proposal was killed by the stink raised by liberals who supported similar proposals in the 1990s.