Democrats and Republicans in Congress are warily circling around the elephant in the room, the huge deficits that entitlement programs are creating, but neither side wants to take the politically risky step of being the first to propose the cuts that are obviously needed. President Obama is either abstaining entirely from the debate or holding his fire to be prepared to make political capital of any Republican attempt to modify Social Security or Medicare, Either way, he certainly isn’t leading the effort to solve the problem.
It would be easy to blame the Washington politicians for failing to do the politically hard but necessary things to bring the Federal budget back to sanity, but in fact the government in Washington is exactly the government we, the American voters, put into office. So in the end, responsibility for our feckless politicians rests entirely with us.
The real question isn’t whether Washington politicians will find the backbone, the strength of character and the wisdom to do the painful but necessary pruning of Federal programs, but whether we, the American voters, will find the backbone, the strength of character and the wisdom to vote into office politicians who will do what is necessary, even if it means sacrifices in our own paychecks and benefits.
If we Americans continue to demand that the government fund programs we can’t afford, using borrowed money, then when the inevitable consequences of this stupid policy finally hit us (and hit us they will!), we have no one to blame but our own greed, gullibility, and short-sightedness. In the end, we the American voters get the government, and the consequences, we deserve.
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