Entitlements, in brief

Via Krugman, Digby delivers a broadside against conservative fiscal priorities:

Right now the social security trust fund isn't going to run out of the surplus we've all been paying into it since 1983 until 2037, which is a real shame. If only we could make it go bankrupt now and use all that money for tax cuts and wars...

[Conservatives] have been saying [that Social Security and Medicare are about to go bust] for over half a century and they'll keep saying it until [entitlement programs are] gone. I don't know why anyone still listens to them.

If only these people cared as much about the future of the planet as they do about the projected SS revenues a century out...[Conservatives] simply want to break the generational bond between the young and old and are always looking for a good moment of impending crisis (or "opportunity" like a rising stock market) to put an end to [entitlement] program[s]. Whatever works.

Digby has a point here. Despite what you may have heard, Social Security isn't broken at all. Small changes to the retirement age and the payroll tax ceiling will keep Social Security benefits constant or growing into the indefinite future. There is no crisis; economists (and many bloggers and journalists) know this.

But critics of entitlements are on firmer ground when it comes to Medicare. Rising health care costs mean that, unlike Social Security, Medicare probably isn't viable in the long term without major reform. And Digby is being a little evasive when he says:

As for Medicare --- there's no fixing it without health care. But [conservatives] know that too --- which is one of the reasons they will block reform.

There is a feedback effect from Medicare into health care costs. Rising prices oblige Medicare - which must cover all seniors regardless of their health condition - to pay more, which alows providers to up prices more. Medicare reform will probably be one important element of health care cost control.

But everyone who's worried about Social Security can stop doing so.

Update: Read Brad DeLong for more on the bulshittinous nature of anti-entitlement crusaders.