It's The Taxes, Stupid - Public Sector Spending

Health Care spending has increased from 6% of GDP in 1970 to almost 20% today, costing Americans an additional $2 trillion per year. Medicare and Medicaid - invented in the late 60s - were projected to be only $25 billion by 2010, and now represent 33% of total health care spending, or $650 billion. Education spending has increased in constant dollars from $2,500 per pupil in 1970 to over $10,000 per pupil today, totaling $900 billion, $650 billion more than it should be. Social Security has gone from 2% on the first $3,000 of income in 1945 to 12% of the first $90,000 today, costing $500 billion more per year than projected and running gargantuan deficits. Welfare of all types is up from about $50 billion in constant dollars since WWII to $700 billion per year today. Add it all up, and Public Sector spending - the additional burden on American taxpayers and businesses imposed by all levels of government - now captures 40% of our GDP. Directly after WWII that figure was less than 10%. That's $4 trillion in unnecessary expenditures every year.

What do all of these programs have in common? They are Socialist programs, pure and simple. There is no competition and no free market. Capital is siphoned away from the economy and taxes are portrayed as "investments". The economy staggers under the additional taxation, and recessions are the result. Money flows out of the country, and the U.S. indebts itself to the rest of the world.

And from my personal perspective, I assign the blame thusly: Democrats - 80%; Republicans - 20%. Democrats are the party of Government, and represent 80% of it's employees and bureaucrats. They are the authors of every one of the programs that led us to this sorry state. Unfortunately, Republicans - or at least our political class - have gone along for the ride.

More than that, until our public servants - which is to say the Democratic Party - rediscover the meaning of the word "ethics", we can expect this cycle of corruption to repeat itself, again and again.