Morning Bell: Show Us the Savings

Conn Carroll / May 29, 2009

According to an analysis by USA Today, American taxpayers “are on the hook for an extra $55,000 a household to cover rising federal commitments made just in the past year for retirement benefits, the national debt and other government promises.” Federal obligations now stand ata record $546,668 per household, quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt combined.

Fortunately for Americans, President Barack Obama recognizes that the federal government has a spending problem. He told CSPAN this weekend: “We are out of money.” Unfortunately, President Obama’s proposed solution will only make the problem much, much worse. While Obama correctly recognizes that our increasingly government controlled health care sector is on a trajectory that “will see health care cost as an overall share of our federal spending grow and grow and grow and grow until essentially it consumes everything,” Obama’s solution is to accelerate this trend by creating a government run health plan that will eventually cancel private coverage and care. The cost of this new government run health care for all? At least $122.6 billion annually, with a totaling $2 trillion by 2019. (more…)