Palm Beach Post Editorial
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Bad as the economy is, the problems are nothing compared with the upheaval that would result from the federal government's failure to meet its commitments under Medicare and Social Security. Every year, the government reports on the precarious nature of those commitments. The only thing that changed this week in the annual report is that the country has lost another year to confront the problems.
During the next president's term, hospital insurance under Medicare no longer will pay for itself. Social Security stops paying for itself in 2017. So, the candidates must have detailed positions on how they would save America from entitlement calamity, right? Wrong. They know better than to say, in the current political climate, that Americans will have to sacrifice to bring these programs into balance.
Barack Obama suggests a nearly painless increase of Social Security taxes on wages above a $102,000 cap. He hasn't said whether those increases would return to wage-earners when they retire, which would render the increase moot. Hillary Clinton and John McCain have said little beyond the obligatory call for a blue-ribbon task force to shield themselves from the political heat of the painful decisions ahead. Sen. McCain continues to back privatization of Social Security.
Fred Thompson may be to blame for this dearth of ideas. He came out early and urgently with good ideas for reforming Social Security, but no one paid attention and Mr. Thompson went out early.
Pain and sacrifice, the surviving candidates know, won't sell. But at the current rate, even acknowledging the problem is out of reach. "The longer we wait, the harder this gets," said Harry Zeeve of the fiscal watchdog group, the Concord Coalition. "If people don't like what the economy looks like today, with the slow growth and the mortgage problems and the falling dollar, just wait if we don't take this on."
The candidates portray themselves as ready to handle various crises overseas. What about the two ticking crises at home?
Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/03/29/m12a_socsecmed_edit_0329.html