We're going to be a lot slower in moving on the agenda that we've talked about, because that's partly the process of hearing that the cupboard is bare.
It looks like the United States will be entering a recession in 2008. Given the degree of integration with our economy, we can expect some kind of slowdown. Knowing that you've raided $191 billion in surplus over the next few years means that you can say legitimately, “The cupboard is bare; we can't help you.” But women have waited in good times and bad for something to be done.
It is disheartening. It is hugely disheartening. That said, it's not like we have no money to do things. We still have some money. As a society, we can actually say that we want to pay for these things, but that's where in fact politicians and civil society intersect. It is totally political what we do. It's not for lack of money. We have $1 trillion more a year now than we did 25 years ago.
Somehow we're losing access to health care and education and all the rest of it. We're struggling to maintain what we already have. It's not about the money; it's about us deciding that we want to spend the money we make on the type of society we want, and I'm very hopeful that we are actually entering a new political period where we talk about these things reasonably, that we see that it is the legacy of my generation, the boomer generation, stripping the assets of public infrastructure and the supports that our own children are not going to enjoy, and we're not even sure how they're going to be earning a living in the next 20 years. I'm very hopeful that we will stop sleepwalking and that we will actually talk about how we can share better the prosperity that we have in spades in this country compared to most countries.
So the $191 billion is gone. As Dr. Phil says, you can't take back stupid. We lost it, unless some government wants to be elected and say in fact that we don't need to spend that. But that takes political courage, and maybe that's what we're about to engage in, an era of political courage so we pay for the country that we want to live in.