they have to be reformed to save the program and to keep the country from going into a greek-reich status. there are $8.6 trillion of unfunded like the in social security. to make it solvent the next 75 years, you valid to put $8 trillion in the bank today. for medicare, it s three times that, so if you don t reform entitlements, you will never avoid the coming grief. post-election, democrats have the wind behind their back, the president does on this. is there any appetite for this or is it going to be a bloodbath? a lot of democrats understand that medicare social security runs out of money in 2033. medicare runs out of money in 2024. so these programs literally go bankrupt. if you want to save them, you have to restructure them. younger people need to work longer. me and you, we make enough money to pay more into the system without losing our quality of life. age adjustment and means testing will help save these programs.
country from going into a greek-like status. there s $8.6 trillion of unfunded liability in social security. to make it soment for the next 75 years, you d have to put $8 trillion in the bank today. for medicare, it s three times that. so if you don t reform entitlements, then you re never going to avoid becoming greece. greta: all right. is there any appetite for reform? we re sort of in a situation, post-election, democrats have the wind behind their back, the president does on this. is there any appetite for this or is it going to be a bloodbath? a lot of democrats understand that medicare social security runs out of money in 2033. medicare runs out of money in 2024. so these programs literally go bankrupt. if you want to save them, you have to restructure them. younger people need to work longer. me and you, we make enough money to pay more into the system without losing our quality of life. age adjustment and means testing will help save these programs.
mostly through lowing loopholes. and now from capitol hill, the solution needs to all of the above approach. guest: two former republican congressman wrote in the wall street journal when you consider all the federal government liabilities, our debt is more like $8.6 trillion every day you have the baby boomers retiring and meeting the benefits so a key senate republican says entitlements must be part of the negotiations if you solve the problem, there is no question you are going to need some revenue but you can take all the revenue and it would not solve the problem. so, the real answer is, we have a demographic shift that is coming into entitlement programs that have increased their benefits without increasing the taxes to pay for the entitlement programs. though are bankrupt. essentially. we have heard a lot of people say over the course of the campaign people love medicare
dream? the official unemployment rate is overly optimistic. the real unemployment rate is not around 9% but double that. according to friend of the show peter marisi that includes the under employed and those settling for part-time gigs and college grads not using their college degree. while we get housing reports on foreclosures and home sales, harvard university s joint center for housing studies has already crunched numbers to show the devastating loss of home equity in this country. home values are down 8.6 trillion dollars during the past decade. that s $8.6 trillion with a t. and we at the d.r. show are well aware any time you tell someone the system they ve been using in this case going back to the 1930s with gdp is broken and not giving you the appropriate measure they instantly get defensive. there is nothing more fundamentally disruptive to the status quo power apparatus than a new reality and new tools of
florida republican congressman and member of the tea party caucus, colonel allen west. thanks for joining us. what s your reaction to those comments by kerry and also axelrod calling the tea party down grade? well, good morning, steve and eric and i find those comments to be absolute most insidious things i ve ever heard. i think what you continue to see from the left is looking for someone to blame. it s very simple. when we go back to 2007, when the democrats took over the house and the senate, the debt at that time was 8.6 trillion and now today we see the debt at $14.5 trillion. they have to look at themselves and they have to understand that they are the ones that are totally to blame. it has nothing to do with increasing revenues by tax hikes. it has everything to do with cutting in spending and one of the most important things we need to be doing right now is get back up to washington, d.c. and deal with this situation. and look for those deeper cuts, i think that when you can