Bowles Says Deficits Will Make U.S. ‘Second-Rate’
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Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of the commission on U.S. deficit reduction, said entitlement programs such as Social Security will turn the nation into a “second- rate power” if their costs aren’t reduced.
“We’re going to mess with Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security because if you take those off the table, you can’t get there,” Bowles said today in a speech to North Carolina bankers in Greensboro. “If we don’t make those choices, America is going to be a second-rate power and I don’t mean in 50 years. I mean in my lifetime.”
President Barack Obama created the commission last month, and named Bowles, 64, former Clinton White House chief of staff, and former Wyoming Republican Senator Alan Simpson, 78, to lead the panel. The commission’s recommendations to bring the budget deficit down to 3 percent of the economy by 2015 are due Dec. 1.
“All of our revenue is completely consumed by entitlements,” Bowles said. “This is today, not some forecast into the future. Every dollar we spend on the military, homeland security, transportation, education and research is borrowed,” and half of that comes from foreign sources, he said. “That is a recipe for disaster.”
Read More: – By David Mildenburg, Bloomberg
