Brian: The problem here is you want to eat your cake and have it, too. When JFK (and, later, LBJ) pushed for a wider social safety net, the world and the US were very different places. The period from 1945 (WWII’s end) to about 1972, was an American Golden Age. We won’t ever see its like again. We had emerged virtually unscathed from WWII (when compared to Europe, England and Japan) and were dominant militarily, economically and politically. We had the ability to fund “guns and butter” programs (i.e. Vietnam AND the Great Society).
No more. We cannot argue about universal rights and expansion of programs when we can’t afford them. Its nuts. Yeah, I get you’re an Obama guy and I also get wanting your team to win (I coach football, remember?), but we’re pushing these programs when we have no real means to fund them and are getting way too close to the edge of the cliff for my liking, which was my point about many of the Tea Partyers having a valid point.
We need to get back on track with education, and infrastructure and REAL renewable energy programs. We need to cut defense, entitlements and the bailouts.
