Pile up the future debt

Here’s Michael Barone on Social Security:

However, the outcomes that appear most likely, in the absence of policy changes, involve rising budget deficits and increases in the amount of federal debt outstanding to unprecedented levels. For example, one plausible scenario is based on the assumptions that (1) federal retirement and health spending will follow the CBO's intermediate projection; (2) defense spending will drift down over time as a percentage of GDP; (3) other noninterest spending will grow roughly in line with GDP; and (4) federal revenues will remain close to their historical share of GDP–that is, about where they are today. Under these assumptions, the CBO calculates that, by 2030, the federal budget deficit will approach 9 percent of GDP–more than four times greater as a share of GDP than the deficit in fiscal year 2006.

Max Baucus of Montana is the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which would control any reform legislation. It doesn’t sound like he’s worried, demagogue-ing it up for some Montana seniors:

"I'm the lead guy on this end, the person in charge of preventing privatization, and I love it," Baucus told a crowd of several dozen seniors at an AARP-sponsored event at UM-Helena commemorating 70 years of the Social Security program. "I've never had so much fun fighting for something that's right. This is one of the biggest battles I've confronted in all the years I've been in Congress."

There goes the proud captain of the Titanic.