The Washington Post listed the three top polling candidates for each major party's presidential nomination and their main issues. It then complained about the problems that aren't on anyone's list "such as the coming crisis in Social Security and Medicare." The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's most recent projections show that Social Security can pay all scheduled benefits, with no changes whatsoever, until 2046, and roughly 75 percent of scheduled benefits for many decades after that date, even if no changes are ever made. Since the program is projected to be fully solvent for nearly 30 years after the latest date that the next president will leave office, it is understandable that they are not anxious to address this "crisis." The Medicare story of course boils down to projections of exploding health care costs. If the health care system is not fixed, then "fixing" Medicare is irrelevant. We can zero out the program, but exploding health care costs would still devastate the economy. If the health care system is fixed, so that costs in the U.S. are in line with health care costs in other wealthy countries, then Medicare would be easily affordable. Apparently, politics or some other factors prevent the Post from being straight with its readers on these issues.
-- Dean Baker
