Promises that cannot be kept (without an automatic 27% cut)

George Will makes a not-so-veiled reference to the entitlement crisis in his article today about General Motors’ problems in “The Road to Bankruptcy”:

Bankruptcy -- seeking judicial permission to shred contracts improvidently entered into -- should be so costly that it cannot become a routine management tool for private-sector welfare states. And America's welfare state cannot seek what is called "bankruptcy protection." Detroit today is having what Washington will eventually have -- a wrenching rendezvous with promises that seemed compassionate, or at least convenient, when originally made but that cannot be kept without ruinous consequences.

Those consequences include massive tax hikes and/or deep benefit cuts; there is simply no way around the math. Will Franklin has been falling behind with his Social Security Reform Thursdays but here’s his last entry.