Paul Krugman hammers Barack Obama for saying that there's a Social Security Crisis. Although this page favors Obama for President, Krugman is right on this one, and Obama wrong. The "crisis" has largely been the creature of Repubs who want to tear down the Social Security system as we know it.
I saw only about half of last night's debate, but I did tune in in time to hear Obama make it clear that the real crisis is financing health care, a much greater problem than Social Security. So maybe he's learning.
(In today's column, Krugman repeats an observation he's made before--that what passes for "bipartisanship" today is code for giving in to the Right. Indeed, the attitude of most on the right has paralleled JFK's description of Nikolai Khruschev's negotiating position: "What's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable." On the other hand, as Joe Biden noted last night, that's changing. We've seen in Congress that more and more Repubs--scared by W's extremism and/or the 2008 elections--are moving toward a real center.)
I saw only about half of last night's debate, but I did tune in in time to hear Obama make it clear that the real crisis is financing health care, a much greater problem than Social Security. So maybe he's learning.
(In today's column, Krugman repeats an observation he's made before--that what passes for "bipartisanship" today is code for giving in to the Right. Indeed, the attitude of most on the right has paralleled JFK's description of Nikolai Khruschev's negotiating position: "What's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable." On the other hand, as Joe Biden noted last night, that's changing. We've seen in Congress that more and more Repubs--scared by W's extremism and/or the 2008 elections--are moving toward a real center.)
3 comments:
Old New Englander, I found your blog while searching and while I never respond to these forums your posts have inspired me to do so. Beyond the fact that government should not be in the retirement security or insurance business we do have looming problem with the entitlements. Please see: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TRSUM/trsummary.html
Thanks for the compliment. At least I think it was.
As for government not dealing with retirement security, you're perfectly entitled to feel that way, but you're swimming upstream against 70 years of history and 95% of the American people.
It was a compliment however I believe you are way off base in you belief that SS is valued by Americans. While I am a boomer, and will see some level of return, the younger generation strongly feels SS is a dinosaur that needs to be revamped. I bet dollars to Dunkin Donuts that SS as we know it will be gone within the next decade.
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