It doesn't seem that they do, based on a front page article in today's paper on the war and the economy. The article comments that "the oldest boomers turn 60 [sic] this year. There is no sign of a political consensus on changing Social Security, which has expanded since Roosevelt launched it, or on making more affordable Mr. Johnson's health-care programs." Of course there is no obvious reason that anyone should be looking to change a program that is fully solvent for the next 39 years according to the most recent projections from the Congressional Budget Office. To build the case for fear, the article then commits the old "Social Security and Medicare sin" commenting that "Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid already consume 36 cents of every dollar that the government spends, about $1.2 trillion this year, and are growing faster than the economy as a whole." As regular BTP readers all know by now, the projections of rapidly rising costs are driven by projections of rapidly rising health care costs. Responsible journalists would see this as evidence of the pressing need for reforming the health care system, especially since the United States is the only country that faces this sort of projected explosion in health care costs (people are aging everywhere).
--Dean Baker
