This ad from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation attempting to alert the populace to the looming threat of entitlement obligations really just underscores how hard it is to create compelling media around the issue of entitlement obligations:
"An action-oriented bipartisan commission!" I want to see Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg running towards the Social Security Administration tights. Or maybe I don't. Meanwhile, early leaks suggested that Peterson would be speaking at today's White House fiscal summit. Not so. Rather, Robert Greenstein from the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and Mark Zandi from Moody's Economy.com will be giving the keynotes. A good example of Greenstein's thinking on entitlements can be found in this paper from the CBPP arguing that "the long-term fiscal outlook is bleak" and "rising health care costs are the single largest cause of rapidly rising expenditures." More on that later.
