[marketcorrection] Don Boudreaux: What Ails

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by Don Boudreaux:
What Ails
http://marketcorrection.powerblogs.com/posts/1209945105.shtml


   16 November 2007
   The Editor, New York Times
   229 West 43rd St.
   New York, NY 10036
   To the Editor:
   Paul Krugman asserts that Social Security faces no financial crisis
   ("Played for a Sucker," November 16). His only evidence? Peter
   Orszag's and Philip Ellis's statement that the largest fiscal problem
   confronting Uncle Sam is the projected growth in health-care costs.
   Mr. Krugman's logic is as compelling as would be that of a physician
   who concludes that tuberculosis isn't a serious illness because
   pancreatic cancer is even more lethal.
   In 2005 testimony before Congress, the eminent economist Thomas Saving
   - appointed by President Clinton to serve as a Public Trustee of the
   Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds - acknowledged that Medicare
   and Medicaid are in worse financial shape than is Social Security. But
   Mr. Saving also warned that Social Security's financial condition is
   precarious. Speaking for the Trustees, Mr. Saving said that action to
   fix Social Security's coming insolvency "should not be deferred any
   longer than necessary for due deliberation and decision."*
   Sincerely,
   Donald J. Boudreaux
   Chairman, Department of Economics
   George Mason University
   * http://mysocialsecurity.org/main/news.php?ItemsID=115