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Monday, April 07, 2008
Wash Post Opines on Future of Entitlements
The Washington Post wrote their lead editorial yesterday on the future of entitlement programs. The editorial once again lumps Social Security, a relatively healthy program, with Medicare and Medicaid, which face more serious funding issues not because they are entitlement programs, but because of the rapidly growing cost of health care in both the public and private sectors.
We have written a good deal on why Social Security should be kept separate from Medicare and Medicaid when discussing long-term fiscal issues and that the Social Security situation is actually not that bad and certainly not even close to a "crisis." (See here, here and here. Also, see our coverage of Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag making the same point to Congress ).
Yet the Washington Post still does not understand the differences between two different causes they cite in the editorial (retirement of baby boomers, rising health care costs) and effects those causes will have. The main problem that must be addressed has always been and continues to be health care costs, not the retirement of the baby boomers. In fact, just last week, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released an excellent report that showed the repeal of the Bush tax cuts for just the top one percent of Americans would generate enough revenue to close the entire funding shortage for Social Security.
While the main point of the editorial is well made (that politicians need to be forced to deal with these problems), the Post continues to follow other news outlets, policy makers, and even some budget experts in lumping the three programs together. This does not help move us toward a solution to the problems we face to keep the promises that have been made. We have to develop a clear understand of what we are up against before we attempt to fix it.
Posted by Adam Hughes
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