Don Brunell’s commentary on the budget got one thing right. The debt is $22 trillion and growing. He fails to mention the true cause of the debt, and instead blames it on Social Security and Medicare which he calls entitlements.
Social Security and Medicare does not add one dime to the debt and are not entitlements. In fact, Reagan and Bush took over $2 trillion from the Social Security trust fund to help pay down the debt. Congress has been trying to raid the rest of the trust fund ever since.
Brunell fails to mention what effect of 20 years of war has had on the debt. He also fails to mention that the Military and Intelligence budget is over $1 trillion a year. More than the next 10 nations combined. This includes Russia, China, Korea, France and England, The U.S. has the largest military budget the world has ever seen.
Brunell conveniently fails to mention the amount that international corporations receive from the U.S. taxpayer in the form of corporate welfare and subsidies, which Forbes puts at over $110 billion a year. The Cato Institute puts at $93 billion a year.
If Brunell was really serious about doing something about the debt, he would consider what the effect of war, the military budget, and corporate welfare have on the debt. However, he is only parroting the administrations call to raid more money from the Social Security trust fund.
Marvin McCoy
Centralia
