Brooks Attacks Entitlements: The Courage of a Coward

David Brooks is back again spreading dishonesty as the honest broker. He is upset about "entitlements" and how they are going to break the budget. Social Security and Medicare are by far the largest entitlements, with Medicaid coming in a distant but rapidly growing third. As everyone familiar with the data knows, Medicare and Medicaid are the real problems, as projections showing exploding private sector health care costs make these program unaffordable. The implication of this analysis is that we have to fix the private health care system in order to keep both the private and public sector solvent. But, this would mean going after powerful interests like the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and the doctors. It is much easier to go after the beneficiaries of entitlements, the elderly and soon to be elderly. They are much less powerful. And people like David Brooks (and David Broder and the Washington Post editorial page and ...) will applaud your courage.

--Dean Baker