Without Entitlement Cuts, Fiscally Sound Government Is Impossible

from No Money, No Worries blog:

The following chart should dispel the commonly held notion that we will be able to balance the federal budget by eliminating programs widely perceived as wasteful – the expenditures devoted to studying the mating habits of jellyfish and the like.

The above chart is a back-of-the-envelope calculation based on numbers published by the Congressional Budget Office.  The sad truth is that according to current projections, we could eliminate ALL federal non-defense discretionary spending and still run a deficit.
The elephant in the room is entitlements – especially the fast growing Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Unfortunately, there is no sign that the public is ready to accept mathematical reality, despite all of the heated rhetoric, both at the federal and state levels.

- In a poll last year, Texans’ told Texas’ five largest newspapers that they would like to see budget cuts instead of tax increases. The newspapers put another poll in the field to see which programs Texans would support cutting to balance the budget. They overwhelmingly said that public education and health services should be spared. The problem? Those two programs consume a vast majority of the budget.

RG Ratcliffe and Peggy Fikac report on the conundrum offered up by public opinion to lawmakers. (Chronicle, Express-News)