Another sign that the Bush Administration may push for "entitlement reform" (read: massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) after the election. From CongressDaily ($$):

Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke today called on Congress to overhaul the nation's "unsustainable" entitlement programs sooner rather than later, framing the issue as one of fundamental fairness between today's population and future generations that could be stuck with paying the bills. Bernanke told the Washington Economic Club the country will be saddled with an aging population, both because of the impending retirement of the baby boomers and increases in longevity that will cause the nation to age even after the baby boomers are gone. Entitlement reform should occur soon, not only because "the longer the delay, the heavier the burden," but because making changes earlier will give future retirees the chance to plan. Reform should also "minimize reliance on deficit spending" in order to enhance saving and reduce the burden on future generations. And the changes generally should also "preserve and enhance" incentives to work and save, he added.

Will 2007 be 2005 all over again?

Shorter Sebastian Mallaby: Democrats have no principles because they won't cut Social Security for married low-income people.

Snark aside, I bring this up because Mallaby and many of the entitlement-reform-obsessives around Washington are missing the point about fast-growing government spending. The fastest growing part of the budget are interest payments on the national debt. For more, Daniel Gross has a great article in Sunday's NYT explaining why interest payments have taken off.

Additionally, unlike entitlement spending, high interest payments (and the deficits that help drive them up) serve no social or economic purpose five years into an economic recovery. In fact, it's even more likely that they are an impediment to growth and crowd out spending for other public priorities.

Mallaby's perspective is particularly ironic considering that the Bush administration's adamant refusal to increase taxes or lift the payroll tax cap for high-income earners forces any proposed solutions to either cut benefits (hurting more than just Mallaby's self-professed Democratic strongholds of "poor women and minorities") or add even more debt to the country's books - further imperiling other social spending through even higher interest payments.

Now that would be fiscally irresponsible.