You might not think of security concerns when you’re considering the justifications for reforming federal entitlement spending. But Byron York connects national defense to entitlement reform in his latest report for the Washington Examiner:
European countries, saddled by enormous social welfare commitments, are going broke right and left, and Britain is no exception. A once-formidable military force is gradually being dismantled to pay for health care and pensions.
Here in Washington, Rep. Paul Ryan didn’t talk about Britain or cruise missiles when he unveiled his path-breaking budget proposal this week. But the new House Budget Committee chairman could not have been clearer: In coming years, the Big Three entitlement programs — Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security — will consume the United States’ budget. By sometime around 2050, if increases in the costs of those programs continue unchecked, they will eat up every single tax dollar collected by the federal government.
Long before that, if trends continue, there will be little money left to defend the United States, whose military leaders might find themselves carefully hoarding a few remaining cruise missiles. Everything will go to pay for health care and pensions.
