Digging the Hole DeeperBy Charlie Stenholm

It was either Garfield or Confucius who first said, “When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging.” If only Congress – which holds the government’s purse strings – would put the shovel down. If only.

We learned late last week that Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and committee member Gordon Smith (R-OR) as its “porkers of the month” for their efforts to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). While no one argues the need to take care of children

the Senate Finance Committee, led by Chairman Baucus, approved a $35 billion expansion of the program, making families earning as much as $61,950 eligible for coverage.  To pay for the increased spending, Sen. Smith proposed, and the committee adopted, a 156 percent increase in the cigarette excise tax (61 cents per pack).  Ironically, excise taxes fall heaviest on the working poor - exactly those whom SCHIP is supposed to help.

Social Security (FICA) taxes already hit low-wage workers the hardest. They also are more likely to depend on Social Security because they have fewer discretionary dollars to sock away for their retirement. SCHIP hits these folks when they’re already down.

Congress keeps on digging. And the working poor are getting buried – in more and more debt.

The Candidates' SilenceBy James Hamilton

"In space, no one can hear you scream." It's one of my favorite movie taglines. "Alien" may have premiered in theaters almost 30 years ago, but it's the idea of talking about the the nation's fiscal future that seems alien to the presidential candidates these days.

Newsweek columnist Robert J. Samuelson's column in the August 6th issue of Newsweek tackles this fact head-on. Read it here.

These days, it's the sound of silence that makes me want to scream.

America, let's make a change.By For Our Grandchildren

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal printed an article which included the following comments by Eugene Steuerle: 

"The dilemma that's going to confront the next president the day he or she walks into office is the huge fiscal gap in terms of the promised expenditures we're going to make," said Eugene Steuerle, senior fellow with the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. "Looming obligations for entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare are going to leave little room for spending or tax cuts."

"What makes today so unique in all our history is that never before have we promised so much in the future that those promises absorb all future revenues," Mr. Steuerle said.

With so many experts sounding the alarms on Social Security, why aren't our politicians paying attention?  Better yet, why aren't enough voters paying attention and making politicians face the future?

As a mother of two, I am scared of the economic future of this country and of what my children will have when I no longer support them.  I'm fearful of my future!

America, it's time for us to wake up and take action!

- Kimberly Sguera

Dick Armey in New HampshireBy James Hamilton

Dick Armey's recent op-ed in the the New Hampshire Union Leader highlights the absence of Social Security and Medicare from the presidential campaign and the desire - pleading, almost - by the electorate for the candidates to speak candidly on the issue. These individuals - whether Democrats or Republicans - have a moral responsibility to speak to the concerns of the American public.

At the same time, voters have the responsibility to raise issues that are important to them and hold the candidates accountable when they fail to speak out.

It's time for everyone to take their roles more seriously.

Manufactured AngerBy James Hamilton

I read in an article recently that ABC News correspondent John Quinones first made a name for himself (and jump-started his career) by hiring a Mexican human smuggler to get him across the border into Mexico so he could then make the trek back across into the United States - like millions of illegal immigrants do each year. The point of the article was that some experts, like Quinones, really know what they're talking about when they take to the airwaves or blogs.

That leaves tons of other bloggers, reporters, radio personalities, etc. who can claim no expertise whatsoever on anything - except, maybe, getting their opinions out to the masses.

This "manufactured anger" takes up more space on Internet search engines than is imaginable. Search Google for most any topic and blogs of all kinds will appear among the results.

We all have opinions. And we're entitled to them. But as the late great Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, liked to note, "We're not entitled to our own set of facts."

The General Accountability Office, Federal Reserve, Congressional Research Service all agree that Social Security, Medicare, and many other federal programs are growing at unsustainable rates.

Unsustainable?

Sure. Within the lifetime of most everyone reading this blog, the programs' size will outpace the ability of American workers to pay the taxes necessary to fund them.

Almost every single American is affected by the coming financial crisis. No need to "float across the river" like Quinones did. We're all experts - or can easily become one - because each of us is has a vested interest in it.

No need for manufactured anger. This is the real deal.

A Senator's RegretBy Lea Abdnor

Last night, I was talking with a former Republican senator who served during the so-called "Greenspan Commission" in 1983.

At that time, Social Security was on the brink of being unable to pay benefits to the elderly, and a compromise "deal" was made between the two parties' leadership to solve the problems in the system.  The Senator talked about voting to approve the Greenspan Commission recommendations -- and those recommendations (among other things) raised payroll taxes significantly higher than was needed to pay benefits.

The bill that passed set up the scenario that we now have -- for almost 25 years Congress has been spending that excess money on other programs and putting IOUs in the Trust Fund and the Social Security Trust Fund is filled with trillions of dollars in IOUs that future taxpayers will have to redeem, starting in a few years.

The Senator said that if he -- and most of his colleagues -- had known about this scenario, they never would have agreed to it.  As it was, it was one of those legislative packages brought to the Senate floor and passed quickly. The Senator regrets this situation and said it's time to stop playing games with Social Security and fix the system for our kids and grandkids.

The Senator is my uncle, Jim Abdnor of South Dakota.