Replies to post #702 on Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA)

[big-yank]

Prudent Capitalist, I am digging through my cyber archives for a copy of the Actuarial Analysis done by the Federal Budget Office that has the supporting math which confirms the "entitlement risk window" is about 20 years and then totally goes away as The Baby Boomer phenomenon literally dies off. It was done awhile back around the Simpson-Bowles Commission report and I am not certain I saved it.

I agree with robb that a chunk of the deficit gap can be bridged by reform of abuses and fraud. My favorite example was my now deceased mom's podiatrist that billed Medicare $600 for trimming her ingrown toenail by billing the 15 second procedure as "surgery". Medicare is now beginning the process of bidding out patient care and awarding contracts with strict performance caveats to lower cost providers. The savings to Medicare during a multi-year test program was around 45%. Many experts including Simpson-Bowles believe in "means testing" as a preferable bridge to the spending vs. tax revenue gap. Simply raising the retirement age for the elderly only forces them to work longer, exacerbating the unemployment problem instead of making way for the younger workers entering the workplace.

All just my opinion. One thing we all agree on is that SOMETHING absolutely must be done before we all go down the tubes.

GLTA,

Yank

[Prudent Capitalist]

Say what? Of course the deficit is a bipartisan adventure to some extent, but this country never saw anything near a $Trillion deficit until President Obama took office. He has presided over 4 straight years of $Trillion+ deficits, the smallest of which was over twice the size of the largest deficit in the preceding 8 years (During Obama's first term average monthly federal spending was 30% higher than the prior 4 years). And, Obama is the first Preesident in history who newver had a Budget during their first term (the one "budget" he proposed was voted down 97-0 by the Senate he controlled at the time).

Bottom line: We amassed more new debt in 4 years under Obama than was added to the federal debt over the prior 8 years.

I am not a fan of the sequester, but the President has shown no leadership, and if he won't discuss spending cuts then maybe he should get the Sequester he put in place and has repeatedly claimed he will not let go, that is until his recent complete 180 degree turn on his sequester.