There are three things you have to do to get out of a dangerous place. First confront the brutal facts of the situation; second, and only after acknowledging the first, find the way out of peril. And third, have the faith that you will succeed.  Fortunately we Americans have the third ingredient in abundance: an undying belief in ourselves that we can resolve any problem that confronts us and move our country forward.

For eighty years, since Roosevelt’s New Deal, we have accepted the idea that through our Federal government we can entitle people to a pension and health care. First it was for those over 65 (Social Security and Medicare), then health care was added for the needy (Medicaid), next “conservative” Republicans rammed through prescription drugs for the elderly, and now President Obama wants to expand health care to nearly everybody.

It mattered not whether it was Democrats or Republicans in charge; both fed our appetites, expanded these entitlements, and gave them the vaulted status of the Third Rail in Politics. With our consent, none dared confront the costs or how to fund them. “Remove waste, fraud, and abuse” worked as an excuse for a while as did “grow our way out of it through tax reductions.”  We fired politicians who even spoke of curtailing them.

The brutal facts that confront us and with which we must now deal are that we Americans cannot afford the promises we extracted from our politicians over these eighty years. We have never taxed ourselves sufficient to pay for the entitlements; and we will not start now since to do so would destroy economic growth and the hope of living the American dream for ourselves, our children, and grandchildren.  

That left and leaves only debt as a source of money for the programs. “Deficits don’t matter” was the disingenuous hymn sung by both conservative and liberal administrations during the eighty years. Loans were plentiful and we Americans bought into the easy money. But if the home mortgage debacle of the past several years taught us nothing, it taught us that too much debt cannot be serviced and will detonate in our faces.

Americans are facing the brutal fact that ever increasing debts caused by exploding deficits have placed us in a very dangerous place. If allowed to continue growing, our debts will soon be too large for the taxpayers to service; a default will destroy the value of our money just as mortgage defaults destroyed the value of our homes. Unlike our homes though, our Dollar is the foundation for the world’s prosperity.   

We Americans get it and we are getting madder at politicians who don’t.

The Senators and Congressmen in both parties have built their prestigious careers on spending our money. “Bringing home the bacon” whether its in earmarks for their friends or entitlements for their constituents is the proven path to re-election. The intra-party fights are only about who gets to decide where the money they are borrowing in our name goes; despite the rhetoric, it’s never about how to stop spending.

Unfortunately, the current career politicians will never change because they know no other way to remain in their prestigious jobs. Fortunately, Americans are beginning to confront that brutal fact and are organizing through this RedState blog, other blogs, and the Tea Party to replace them all.

In the past eighty years, we have put ourselves in dire circumstances, but can we succeed in overcoming the danger? Yes, we can because like our ancestors, we Americans are facing the brutal facts about our spending, debts, and enabling politicians; we are seeing the course ahead; and we already know that with our undying belief in ourselves, we will prevail.

You can always trust the government to pull an Orwell and regularly use words that mean the opposite of their political meaning.  Take “Non-Discretionary Spending,” for example.  What is, by its nature, the most discretionary part of our budget, social programs like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, are called “non-discretionary.”  The money that funds what our government is meant to do, that is, the courts, regulatory agencies and military, on the other hand, are “discretionary spending.”

Were the irony not so tragic, it would be funny.

I could go into the intricacies of why these discretionary funds are called “non-discretionary,” but it boils down to this:  The embedded constituencies, that is, the people who benefit from the spending which makes up two thirds of our budget, are too numerous and too powerful for a politician to ever consider cutting funding.

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Health care reform is a many faceted problem. Between lowering costs, increasing coverage, balancing budgets, and maintaining quality, any reformer has his hands full. Throughout the debate we’ve highlighted the current version of the legislation’s negative effect on individuals and the size of the national government. However, this ignores one of the crucial impacts of health care – it’s effect on the states.

A recent study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that the recession has caused the steepest decline in state tax receipts ever, forcing states to deal with enormous budget gaps. As the number of employed goes down and corporate profits dwindle, states receive less tax revenue. Among the states facing the worst mid-year budget gaps are:

• California: $6.3 billion
• Arizona: $2 billion
• Kentucky: $1.2 billion
• Maryland: $936 million
• New York: $3.2 billion
• Washington: $2.6 billion
• TOTAL Budget Shortfall: $33.9 billion

As shortfalls continue to pile up, states must make tough decisions on spending and service cuts. Now however, states already being squeezed by the economy may face the additional pressure of having to pay for the mandated expansion of Medicaid contained in the health care reform legislation. As Time Magazine explains ,

Congress is looking to expand Medicaid because in terms of raw costs, it is the cheapest and most efficient way to cover people of modest means. That’s in part because Medicaid pays doctors and hospitals far lower reimbursements than private insurance does and in part because the states pick up some of the cost.

Both House and Senate bills would pay the states’ share of the cost of the new patients over the first two years and up to 95% after that. But states would still face an enormous new financial obligation. There is also the question of finding enough providers to care for 15 million new patients. “It is a huge load on the states at a time when we are still climbing out of the recession,” Tennessee Governor Phil Bredeson said this week in Nashville. His state — already facing $1.5 billion in budget cuts this year and next — has estimated that the Senate version would cost it an additional $735 million from 2014 to 2019 and that the price tag of the House bill would be nearly double that.

Bredeson was not the only Governor to come out against the health care legislation. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who surprised many in December by saying ,

“I am one of the only Republican elected officials in the country to publicly support the president’s health care reform efforts. … But additional work is required. … The current structure and the proposed expansion of Medicaid under health care reform are unsustainable for California.”

He has now reversed his support for the health care plan because the Senate’s failure to address the new financial burdens on states, saying,

“You’ve heard of the bridge to nowhere? This is health care to nowhere.”

Young adults may wonder what kind of impact this will have on their lives. In one word: HUGE. Public universities are dealing with the dueling threats of increased applications and decreased state funds. As Terry Hartle, senior vice president for the American Council on education says ,

“It’s a balancing act. Just about every revenue source that colleges have is under distress.”

For instance, in California where the state budget is reaching record deficits, the public university system is projecting tuition increases of 9.3%. But this represents the tip of the iceberg. With state governments on the hook for billions of dollars to meet the mandated increases in Medicaid, public universities will have be faced with the tough choice of slashing the number of classes, raising tuition, or sacrificing quality. No matter what the decision, students are the ones who would suffer.

For a comprehensive list of the recessions effects on higher education, visit: http://recessionreality.blogspot.com/

Senator Ben Nelson (D-DeadMeat) continues to try to distance himself from his Obamacare bribe and his vote for the bill:

“At the end of the day, whatever Nebraska gets will be available to all states,” Nelson said during a conference call with reporters.

In exchange for his crucial support of the reform bill, Nelson was promised federal funding to cover Nebraska’s entire cost of a Medicaid expansion included in the bill. Other states will have to begin picking up a portion of the added expanse beginning in 2017.

Nebraska wasn’t alone in getting Medicaid breaks. Vermont, Louisiana and Massachusetts also got help with their programs.

Nelson said Thursday that if he can’t secure a similar deal for every state, he wants states to be freed from paying the cost of Medicaid expansion. That would mean eliminating the provision or finding another way to pay for it.

“States that are concerned about Nebraska getting something that they’re not getting should rest at ease,” Nelson said. “That’s not going to happen…”

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Ben Nelson said he never asked for Harry Reid to give Nebraska more funding for Medicaid, and now Blanche Lambert Lincoln says that bribe should be deleted from any final health care bill:

U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln said a political deal that benefits Nebraska and may have clinched a lawmaker’s support for health care legislation should be removed from the bill.

The Democratic senator from Arkansas on Tuesday said she was disappointed about a provision in the Senate’s health care bill that will require the federal government to permanently pay the entire cost of Medicaid expansion in Nebraska, while only paying the costs of expansion in the other 49 states for three years.

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