Business reporters should ask him this question, since he keeps lumping in Social Security with Medicare and Medicaid as the drivers of large projected deficits in the decades ahead. Of course, the projections show that rising Medicare and Medicaid costs are the main problem, which in turn are driven by projections of exploding health care costs in the private sector. The projected increases in Social Security costs are relatively modest, m measured as a share of GDP, the rise in SS payments is less over the next quarter century than it was over the period from 1965 to 1980. So, why does Bernanke consistently get it wrong? Is this part of an effort to build political support to cut Social Security or is he just being lazy? Suppose that he had said the problem is the projected increase in the cost of Head Start and Medicare and Medicaid, or maybe the national park maintenance, Medicare and Medicaid. Would reporters just write down Bernanke's assertions and never examine their validity? Is that what they get paid to do?
--Dean Baker