Scary predictions on"60 minutes"

[question everything]

The US Comptroller general was warning about our long marching into debt. Even had that short video of Clinton declaring that the deficit was zero.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/01/60minutes/main2528226.shtml

He criticized that Medicare drug program but, of course, it is expensive because the program is prohibited from negotiating with the pharmaceutical companies for better prices, the way Canada and other countries do.

And the irony, of course, is that health care is so much more expensive in this country while the number of uninsured people, of infant mortality is the highest in the industrial nations.

I also don't know whether other industrial nations has such a wage gap as we have.

And, yes, the next generations, holding on to service jobs at minimum wage, will not be able to support the baby retired baby boomers.

[zulchzulu]

1. No mention in the piece about how much we spend on the military...

A little of this would have been nice:

"The USA, responsible for about 80 per cent of the increase in 2005, is the principal determinant of the current world trend, and its military expenditure now accounts for almost half of the world total."

http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/Spending.asp

One high-end Stealth bomber (worth about a trillion) could provide universal healthcare in the US. Or we can use that money to build something to kill brown people with...

[question everything]

2. Right. And I think that one reason is that, in theory

we can stop this war and get back home.

But the obligations of social security and of Medicare are there.

At least, trying to understand this from a number guy's point of view.

[lakeguy]

5. actually...

i think it's better to say that we spend more on the military/defense than the rest of the world combined. saying we "only" spend 50% may seem okay with some people. just my nit picky hating all that we waste on bombs attitude:mad:

[nealmhughes]

3. I've heard him speak before on Amy Goodman, and was surprised that the MSM had him on.

If that wasn't a wakeup call for the Geritol Generation to start calling for universal health care and an end to M-I Complex, I don't know what was!

[melody]

4. It was amazing how he zeroed in on "entitlements"

And didn't criticize this administration's insane spending on things that merely
enrich the already rich.

[havocmom]

8. Nothing about tax cuts for the top either. Nor outsourcing jobs

so US workers are losing wages which also means less paid in taxes.

Not one damned thing but 'entitlements'. bush/cheney/years of GOP control of the Hill have given America's treasury away on fabricated wars and voo-doo economics and it's entitlements and soon-to-retire boomers that are to blame? :wtf: Those boomers worked and enabled the ownership class to prosper for decades, now we are the problem?

Gray Panthers Part II coming up.

[melody]

10. exactly n/t

[LaPera]

6. It's all going to blow up in the next president's face, likely a democrat - And

Bush will be long gone by then and the corporations will have our tax dollars already neatly tucked away in their personal off-shore bank accounts as we go down the drain...They'll be wars for profit BushCo created going full blast along with a gigantic military budget the next prez will be stuck with...We will be fucked and the republicans are going to try and blame it all and pin it on the next democratic administration...these filthy republican thieves!

Reagan started the ball rolling convincing people it was in their best interest for corporate deregulation and no oversight of the capitalist is good for us because the corporations will police themselves. Don't you just love the corporations?

[cascadiance]

7. It really gets wingnuts in a nut when you tell them Cuba is ahead of us in infant mortality!

And for that matter in other meausrements of health as well. Even though they have to endure a boycott of much of the western technology to really get more state of the art medical equipment there, which they currently don't have, they make up for it by providing health care for everyone, and therefore it can be argued more heavily that THAT makes the difference, not just the level of treatment people receive (or some people recive in pur society IF they can afford it!). I've seen frustrated wingnuts spend days trying to rationalize around these arguments on two separate message boards! It's fun seeing them squirm with this, even if it isn't fun acknowledging that we are so screwed by our system now.

[radfringe]

9. something he said really stood out to me

he was talking about his speaking tours and said

"You know the American people, I tell you, we've been to 13 cities outside of Washington with the fiscal wake up tour. They are absolutely starved for two things: the truth, and leadership," Walker says.


heh - implies we do not have truth and leadership now....

[a kennedy]

11. All I thought of was, here we go again, the boomer's are going

to be paying for everything. We're taking care of both our aging parents, and grandchildren. Oh yeah we're the biggest boom, AND THEY'RE GOING TO MAKE US PAY FOR EVERYTHING!!! Complain it's all our fault, but just keep postponing promises to us, and changing the rules mid stream, taxing our meager savings, and now our health care benefits if we're lucky enough to even have benefits. I was under the impression that the "fix" for Social Security came during the 80's when they raised the age of retirement, and increased the FICA tax..... :shrug:

[applegrove]

12. 60 minutes was downright terrifying last night.

[MissB]

14. I dunno. That segment on Sam Simon and his dogs

wasn't too bad.

[applegrove]

15. That was sweet. But I was already terrified from the first two pieces.

[jus_the_facts]

13. So much for ANYONE doin' anything about it either....we're DOOMED...

....s'just a matter of time...it will make the Great Depression look like happy times...because people today don't have the capacity to get through the difficulties that they'll have to face. :nopity: