The Washington Post has consistently ranked among the nation's most shrill voices when it comes to warning us about the coming catastrophe associated with the retirement of the baby boom generation. It routinely editorializes that this will break the budget, requiring massive tax increases or huge cuts in spending in areas not related to retirement programs. In addition, dissenting voices are virtually excluded from its oped pages, even as David Broder, Robert Samuelson, George Will and the rest echo the party line with regularity. For this reason, it is worth noting a rare piece of commonsense that somehow appeared in the Outlook section this week. Russell Beland, a deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower analysis and assessment was given the opportunity to point out that the Post's rants have no basis in reality. Beland doesn't get everything exactly right, but he is on the right track, which distinguishes him from 99.64 percent of Post columns on this topic. I hope no one gets fired at the Post because of this piece.
--Dean Baker
