Samuelson on fixing Social Security and Medicare

If lawmakers were “serious” about “pledges of ‘fiscal responsibility'” they would propose cuts in Social Security and Medicare,  According to Robert Samuelson, “Preserving present retirement benefits automatically imposes huge costs on the young,” and the “tax increases required by 2030 could hit 50% if other spending is maintained as a share of national income.” Samuelson writes that retirees “have adopted a policy of selfish silence” with regard to government-sponsored retirement benefits. He adds, “Baby boomers seem eager to ‘reinvent retirement’ in all ways except those that might threaten their pocketbooks.” Samuelson suggests that in addition to reducing benefits, raising taxes and cutting spending, “much of the adjustment should come from increasing eligibility ages (ultimately to 70) and curbing payments to wealthier retirees.” He writes, “Pundits usually speak in bland generalities” about Social Security and Medicare. “They support ‘fiscal responsibility’ and ‘entitlement reform’ and oppose big budget deficits,” but less “often do they say plainly that people need to work longer and that retirees need to lose some benefits,” Samuelson says. Samuelson predicts that “this Congress will do nothing” to address Social Security and Medicare, “just as previous Congresses have done nothing”

From the Washington Post.

Forwarded by my student, Andrea Palumbo.