New President, Social Security and Medicare

The problem for the next President are going to include Social Security and Medicare.  Robert Samuelson has another great column on the problem.  He writes,"But facing these facts would expose candidates to three daunting problems.

First: Lightening the burden on the young requires cutting retirement benefits for the old -- raising eligibility ages, being less generous to richer retirees and making beneficiaries pay more for Medicare. Simply increasing taxes or cutting other programs won't work. The problem is not just closing the budget deficit.

Second: We can't wait. Ideally, prospective retirees would have received several decades' warning; but we've delayed too long. We need to cut benefits for baby boomers and even some existing retirees. They are the source of mounting costs.

Third: Even if retirement benefits were cut, pressures for higher taxes and lower public services would not disappear. Social Security and Medicare are part of the nation's social fabric. Although individuals' benefits can be responsibly trimmed, the growth in the elderly population (a doubling by 2030) and rapidly rising health costs would still expand total spending. The increases would simply be smaller."

READ IT ALL!