Now they tell us

Boston Globe: "A warning for Obama on deficits"

Just one week after President Obama signed a stimulus package designed to give a short-term boost to the economy, some of the nation's top budget analysts plan to deliver a stark warning today at a White House summit that an even more foreboding long-term crisis will unfold unless Obama quickly fixes Social Security, healthcare, the tax code, and more.

For not the first time, Paul Krugman deploys his "Medicare is in worse shape so pay no attention to Social Security reform" head fake. Poligazette corrects:

Unfortunately, what Krugman’s blizzard of numbers leaves out is the simple question of where the additional 2% of GDP dedicated to Social Security (and far more for the massive increases in Medicare he calls for) would come from. Krugman ignores the additional tax load that would be imposed on workers and the depressive effect that continual massive wealth transfers from young to old would have an a weak economic recovery.

Exactly. Two percent or 20% GDP, somebody's gotta pay. Nobel Prize or not, Krugman's insouciance puts him at odds with the reality-based community of people who understand math:

Analysts across the political spectrum agree that the current path is unsustainable. Unless there is a major budgetary change, federal spending will go from being about 20 percent of the nation's economy to 42 percent in 2050, according to the Concord Coalition. The major reason is that entitlement programs for older Americans are running short of funds.

Medicare, Social Security, public pensions...they're all coming.

Related – NY Times: "Democrats resisting Obama on Social Security." Of course. Old habits die hard.

Extra – Willisms notes that entitlement spending robs the young now and later. And here's a fun graphic from Heritage: