Remember how for months and months, whenever Obama administration officials were asked about deficit reduction or the national debt, the standard line was "The President has appointed a commission and he's going to let them do their job." What exactly was the point of the Deficit Commission if the critical recommendations are to be ignored?
Keep in mind that the decision to reform Social Security is the easy one. The program has an awful rate of return for younger workers and that's before the automatic benefit cuts starting around 2037. If we can't make a moral and fiscal argument for dragging Social Security into the new millennium, we'll never be able to reform Medicare which is a much, much bigger problem.
Extra - Weekly Standard: "Debt be not proud."
Flashback - Fox News: "Debt commissioners: Baby Boomers will crush Social Security, Medicare." Entitlement reform is the most expensive kicked-can ever.
2 comments:
"If we can't make a moral and fiscal argument for dragging Social Security into the new millennium, we'll never be able to reform Medicare which is a much, much bigger problem."
Except for "delivering money to older people," these two programs are dissimilar in almost every other important respect. Maybe fiscal conservatives would sniff more success if they didn't constantly link the two at the hip. It's a tactic that's found no traction with Congress, or more importantly, the public.
As for Social Security's "automatic benefit cuts," you'll never see 'em. They're the illusory result of book-juggling and political will. If I break into your house today and steal everything you own, automatic benefit cuts will kick in for your family tomorrow. When the police make me return your stuff, presto, your home is solvent again.
OK, I won't conflate Medicare and Social Security.
But the SS Trustees estimate that the Trust Fund will exhaust its supply of Treasury bonds in 2037. By LAW, benefits must be cut by a quarter to match incoming revenues. Saying "it won't happen" assumes Americans will accept new levels of taxation or borrowing; the first will be difficult and (given our long-term debt) the second will be impossible.
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