Stop pandering about War cost to grandchildren, start talking about real fiscal problems facing future generations…

Congressman Lantos mentioned that “we are passing the costs of the Iraq War onto our grandchildren” during his pathetic and long-winded opening statement in the House Armed Services Committee today, which makes me incensed. I am about the age of Lantos’ grandchildren, and I consider it an insult to insist that Iraq is the most pressing fiscal liability facing the future leaders of this country. In fact, compared to the other major spending programs that are facing impending insolvency and financial ruin, such as the Social Security system, Iraq looks like an investment more than a line of credit.

I will pay thousands of dollars over the next few decades into a social welfare system, not a penny of which I will see when I reach retirement age because of the irresponsible management of the system by DC politicians since its inception, yet no Democratic Party leader has the courage to inform young voters about this reality. It disgusts me to read polls that claim 70-80% of young voters (under 35) are aligned with the Democratic Party. What has the Democratic Party done for us exactly to earn this support? The only politician in Washington with the courage to even acknowledge the social security problem has been George W. Bush, but unfortunately he was unable to use his “political capital” effectively after his re-election in 2004 to enact meaningful reform.

Nobody in Washington likes telling their constituents that they are cutting entitlement programs because they assume that it is going to lose them votes and cost them elections. Democrats have no incentive to face reality and help the GOP fix the social security problem because the voters who have the most invested in the long-term stability of the social security system either don’t mind that they are not going to receive a penny back from the system they pay into every week, or they are totally ignorant to the fact that the system is nearly irreparably broken. I would like to think it is ignorance that leads my peers to blindly endorse candidates that are completely detached from reality and actively working against our interests, but perhaps we are an uncharacteristically selfless generation of Americans. Regardless of the reasons for our lack of interest in holding politicians to account for the real fiscal problems facing Washington, if we don’t wise up soon, a war in the Middle East is going to seem like a day at the beach compared to the economic disaster that the collapse of the social welfare system will cause.