Even WaPo Gets It?

That bastion of hard line, extreme right wing, small government fiscal conservatism - the Washington Post - has apparently become concerned with the nation's dangerous levels of debt.

This:

To put it bluntly, the fiscal policy of the United States is unsustainable. Debt is growing faster than gross domestic product. Under the CBO's most realistic scenario, the publicly held debt of the U.S. government will reach 82 percent of GDP by 2019 -- roughly double what it was in 2008. By 2026, spiraling interest payments would push the debt above its all-time peak (set just after World War II) of 113 percent of GDP. It would reach 200 percent of GDP in 2038.

This huge mass of debt, which would stifle economic growth and reduce the American standard of living, can be avoided only through spending cuts, tax increases or some combination of the two. And the longer government waits to get its financial house in order, the more it will cost to do so, the CBO says.

and this:

The principal cause of long-term fiscal distress is the aging of the U.S. population, coupled with rising health-care costs -- which, together, will drive spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to new heights. Unchecked, federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid combined will grow from almost 5 percent of GDP today to almost 10 percent by 2035 -- and to more than 17 percent of GDP by 2080.

are points with which regular readers of this blog will certainly be familiar.

The WaPo notes that His Hopey-Changiness has so far responded to this threat the same way his predecessors have: issue statements decrying deficits and debt, while simutaneously spending his way to yet more debt. Strong words for The One from His True Believers in the legacy media.

It is, needless to say, concerning, that having reached the brink of economic ruin primarily by making expensive health care promises to an increasingly aged, obese, health-resource-intensive population, we are about to embark on a massive new program of expensive health care promises to an increasingly aged, obese, health-resource-intensive population.