Douglas Elmendorf, Congressional Budget Office director, testifying before the House Budget Committee:
The country faces a fundamental disconnect between the services that people expect the government to provide, particularly in the form of benefits for older Americans, and the tax revenues that people are prepared to send to the government to finance those services. That fundamental disconnect will have to be addressed in some way if the nation is to avoid serious long-term damage to the economy and to the well-being of the population.
John Hinderaker, author of the Power Line piece which is the source of the quote, opines:
For the foreseeable future, there will be no political will to make such changes. So we're going to see a race between political will and economic collapse. It's hard to be optimistic about the outcome unless a drastic change in our political culture takes place, soon.
Not optimistic, but accurate. I don't see that will in evidence in either major party; perhaps in the tea party movement?
