Following Dan's thought, though, the decline of relative American power after World War II was something American policy deliberately sought. The reconstruction of Europe and Japan was seen as essential to America's material interests as well as to its ideological strategy in the Cold War.

The decline of relative American power after the mid-1990s was quite different -- not planned at all, and barely recognized until after it was very far along. This is testimony to the very different caliber of people at senior levels of the American government in modern times compared to 60 years ago.

I must take exception with one comment alleging that there's no entitlement problem, only a healthcare inflation problem. While it is certainly true that the unfunded libilities of a healthcare entitlement such as Medicare pose a much greater problem than a strictly retirement-related one such as Social Security, most objective studies conducted by the CBO, GAO, and nonpartisan organisations like the Concord Coalition conclude that unfunded retirement programs also present a serious problem. The regressive Social Security payroll tax is already the largest tax half of all Americans face (accounting for the downward shift in the tax burden, not tax cuts for the "rich"), and absent reforms designed to make Social Security a truly funded system as was originally intended, it will result in most future Americans paying more into it than they receive back in benefits--hardly a "fair" solution. As to the belief that only sweeping healthcare reform involving both the private and public sectors can resolve the problems of federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, this contention ignores the impact that they have on medical spending in general. Changes in them can have a beneficial effect on the cost structure of healthcare in general. The insistence that no reforms be undertaken until all of health care is restructured is simply an excuse to do nothing--something that will only lead to greater problems down the road.

I must take exception with one comment alleging that there's no entitlement problem, only a healthcare inflation problem. While it is certainly true that the unfunded libilities of a healthcare entitlement such as Medicare pose a much greater problem than a strictly retirement-related one such as Social Security, most objective studies conducted by the CBO, GAO, and nonpartisan organisations like the Concord Coalition conclude that unfunded retirement programs also present a serious problem. The regressive Social Security payroll tax is already the largest tax half of all Americans face (accounting for the downward shift in the tax burden, not tax cuts for the "rich"), and absent reforms designed to make Social Security a truly funded system as was originally intended, it will result in most future Americans paying more into it than they receive back in benefits--hardly a "fair" solution. As to the belief that only sweeping healthcare reform involving both the private and public sectors can resolve the problems of federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, this contention ignores the impact that they have on medical spending in general. Changes in them can have a beneficial effect on the cost structure of healthcare in general. The insistence that no reforms be undertaken until all of health care is restructured is simply an excuse to do nothing--something that will only lead to greater problems down the road.