Guest Post: More Cliffs Than Fiscal

Via Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog, The fiscal cliff is not the only cliff we're racing toward; there are others.   The fiscal cliff dominates the mainstream news, but it is more like a bump on the pathway to the real cliff. In essence, the path has turned down and we're picking up momentum, gaining speed as we head for the cliff.   The real cliff is the gap between what has been promised and what can plausibly be collected in tax revenues: $86 trillion but one recent estimate, over $120 trillion by other guestimates. The difference is caused by the relative rosiness of the projections to control Medicare and Medicaid spending. Lower estimates assume we can stop the growth of these programs in the long-term, something that has not yet happened for the reason that the system lacks any controls to do so.   This gap widens by $7 trillion a year. That is, t...