Hackery By Rote

As always, this Robert Samuelson column is an utter embarrassment, starting with his typical indefensible conflation of Medicare and Social Security to pretend that they’re both poised to blow up the national budget. And to compound the idiocy, say that the possibility that the Social Security trust fund may stop fully funding benefits in 2037 means it’s about to go “bankrupt,” an unusual way of describing a situation in which dedicated taxes would still fund most of the outlays. (I hate to tell you, Robert, but apparently our defense spending is “bankrupt” right now — I mean, if it’s not fully funded by dedicated taxes throughout eternity, it’s by definition unsustainable!) And it would be really great if the Social Security trust fund were to go “bankrupt” tomorrow, because this would force us to make immediate draconian cuts! And the fact that this won’t in fact happen for decades (and may not happen at all, assuming that the economy becomes more productive) shouldn’t change anything. One illogical assertion piled on top of another, the Samuelson trademark.

In addition, you have to like the way that Samuelson poses as a brave truth-teller, proposing tough but specific policy proposals. And yet, his policy proposal for Medicare — which is the source of most of the fiscal problem he identifies — consists of “a fundamental overhaul of Medicare.” What would this consist of? Your guess is as good as mine (although I suspect Baker has it about right.) But wait — Obama does, in fact, have rather ambitious health care proposals. But that doesn’t count, because “Obama’s plans to expand government-paid health insurance might increase Medicare spending by aggravating medical inflation.” Or, conversely, expanding government insurance might decrease health care costs the way it does in, you know, pretty much every other liberal democracy. Maybe it would work differently in the U.S. — but Samuelson shows no sign of recognizing the fundamental issues here.

And what’s worst of all is that Samuelson has written the same idiotic column, what, six billion times? Isn’t it time for some new blood?