actually, the middle class is where the money is. seems counterintuitive, i know. But you could tax everyone that makes $100,000 at a rate of 100% and still not balance this year's budget, much less when our boomers really crash the entitlements.
past politicians of both parties wrote American's a series of bad checks :shrug: we don't have to like it, but that's the reality - we have promised more than we have the ability to pay. ergo, we must pay less than we have promised. the entitlements are largely aimed at the middle class, and so they will feel the pain of it.
welcome to fiscal reality.
Maybe in right wing fantasy land it is reality.
The REAL reality is that taxes must go up.. across the board. You need more income. You have some of the lowest taxes in the world.
The REAL reality is that cost must come down ... across the board, but particularly in healthcare and defence.
That is the reality and as it stands now the GOP and friends only think about cuts, and as usual the defence industry gets a free pass. Like it or not defence is 33% of the budget and full of waste and corruption. Instead they focus on privatising healthcare, the biggest cost problem there is.. the only reason that Medicaid/care is in trouble, is that the US healthcare system is based on profit and is mostly private, and that has driven up costs year after year, far far higher than the rate of inflation or wages. Cut off the private healthcare industries ability to monopolize and exploit the market as they do now, and then you already there have done a great thing to make Medicaid/care workable. But here it is ideology that comes into the picture and derails everything.
And the GOP and taxes.. they are against it. But the reality of the situation is that the GOP and the Dems have created a tax system that benefits only the rich and does not pull in enough revenue to pay for the things that everyone wants. When the countries top 5 American owned companies pay NO taxes or very little, then you know you have a serious problem. When the worlds 3rd richest man pays less taxes than his secretary then you know you got a problem. You need revenue pure and simple if you want to fund roads, your wars, your veterans, your legal system, your police system, your poor and your elderly which like it or not, paid into the SS and deserve a return.
Like it or not, the reality of the situation is, that the US needs a full "reboot" on taxes and spending, but no politician has the balls to say or do so. They are all defending their money-backers interests and living on the fact that the greenback is the reserve currency in the world. This wont last and when the fall does come it will effect everyone in the US, and around the world. It will make Ireland and Greece look like a picnic.
What this pretty boy Ryan did was 100% based on ideology rather on reality and sane thinking. He for one did not knowledge in anyway that the reason Medicare/aid is a "problem" is the price rises in the private healthcare system. Anyone can see this reality.. but of course the GOP.