Stop Me Before I Vote Again

Here's the Concord Coalition, whipping its lathered steed though every village and town of once-thrifty America, crying "The red ink is coming! The red ink is coming!"

http://www.concordcoalition.org/

The Concord Coalition is a nonpartisan grassroots organization dedicated to informing the public about the need for generationally responsible fiscal policy.

Former U.S. Senators Warren B. Rudman (R-NH) and Bob Kerrey (D-NE) serve as Co-Chairs of The Concord Coalition. Former Secretary of Commerce Peter G. Peterson serves as President.

Mission possible: in a mad fiscal panic and ignorant brute fury, cripple the FDR-LBJ social transfer system, like King Kong does that Manhattan IRT train in the 1932 flick.

Specimen -- I use the word advisedly:

It is often said that our political system only responds to a crisis. If that turns out to be true, our children and grandchildren are in big trouble.

• 2024 -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and net interest consume all revenues; the deficit hits 10 percent of GDP.
• 2025 -- Net interest exceeds Medicare; debt held by the public exceeds 100 percent of GDP.
• 2035 -- Net interest exceeds Medicare and Medicaid; debt held by the public equals 200 percent of GDP.
• 2037 -- The deficit reaches 20.5 percent of GDP, exceeding the size of today's entire federal budget.
• 2039 -- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid consume all revenues.
• 2041 -- Debt held by the public equals 300 percent of GDP.
• 2045 -- Debt held by the public equals 400 percent of GDP.
• 2046 -- Interest costs, at 21.6 percent of GDP, exceed the size of today's entire federal budget.
• 2047 -- Debt held by the public equals 500 percent of GDP.
• 2049 -- GAO model blows up because the economy is in ruins.

Why is it, when I read soft-shoe ballyhoo hokum like this, I see top-hatted Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein, stumbling cane in hand and yowling in agony, "Puttin' on the Riiiiitz!"