Our burgeoning budget and the politics of avoidance

WASHINGTON POST, 11/22/2010 by Robert J. Samuelson (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - America's budget problem boils down to a simple question: How much will we let programs for the elderly displace other government functions - national defense, education, transportation and many others - and raise taxes to levels that would, almost certainly, reduce economic growth? What's depressing is that this question has been obvious for decades, but our political leaders have consistently evaded it. This includes and indicts Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals and every president since Jimmy Carter, particularly Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who clearly understood the problem. Read more at Washington Post...

"Our political culture prefers delusion to candor." Could Samuelson be talking about Corvallis? --JHD
Did Samuelson forget that GWB crossed the country stumping for SS reform, which fell on deaf ears? --bc