Please don't misinterpret my statements - they were not meant to blame Obama and praise Republicans for their now nonexistent "fiscal conservatism." If you read my first post, you would know that I don't consider myself a Republican, at least as the party stands now, for I believe it has moved far from its roots of small government and personal freedoms - the principles of the Constitution.
In fact, everyone in the government is equally guilty. You'll notice that the selection of bad estimates I provided were from all different periods, both under Republican and Democratic control. My point is simple - the government tends to drastically underestimate the costs of its projects. Thus, you have actually strengthened my point, so I thank you. I will certainly add your example of the Bush administration being off by a factor of 39 to my list of evidence opposed to the health care estimates.
Regardless, it's all unsustainable, and we will pay the price eventually. While we're talking about unfunded liabilities of government programs, how about the $107 Trillion of unfunded Social Security liabilities, a number which is actually growing (grew $5 Trillion last year) or the $89 Trillion in unfunded Medicare liabilities. It's all absolutely ludicrous, and it amazes me that people seem to shrug these issues off.
Our problems are not linked any particular policy, or person, or party - it is a more fundamental flaw in our philosophy regarding government and it's role in society. Each new leader and new policy simply fouls up the situation worse than it was going off of flawed principles, trying to legislate away our problems.
I hope that I'm wrong and the situation is not this dismal, but I can't make myself believe it. Only time will tell
-- John Galt
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