Here comes the iceberg

From the San Diego Union-Tribune: “GOP – Dems, too – must tackle entitlements” (HT: Real Clear Politics)

For five years, we've been bickering over why our spies didn't see 9/11 coming and do something about it. But for at least 25 years, our leaders – Republican and Democrat alike – have seen the baby boomer entitlement crush coming and done nothing about it. If there is a Guinness Book of World Records' category for Worst Misgovernance, there is your winner.

President Bush touched upon entitlements in his press conference today:

I think the American people now are beginning to get the picture; that if we don't do something, Social Security and Medicare will go bust. If we don't do something, future Congresses, not this Congress, but future Congresses are going to be confronted with some serious decisions about raising taxes enormously or cutting benefits drastically or other programs drastically.

And so that issue sunk in. It's just that there wasn't that connection with action inside the body of the respective chambers, although there were some noble efforts made by some members of Congress to get something started.

It’s like we’re on a collision course, but we won’t turn the wheel until the very last moment…and then it’s going to be a very hard correction indeed.