Monday, May 11, 2015

We Must Cut It Before They Cut It

I was just thinking back over the last 20 years ago of "Social Security reform" history. This is from memory, because I am a lazy blogger, but basically even though it had already been "reformed" not that long ago there was a deep belief that more "reform" was inevitable. This led to group of supposedly left-leaning thinktankers and similar to come up with their own blueprints for "reform," with the idea that their cunning plan would be at least slightly better than the conservative cunning plan. And, sure, that was probably true, mostly in shifting a bit more in benefits to the poor. These things take on a life of their own, however. When you've made your career tackling a certain subject, you keep doing it. It's what you do. So the impulse to "reform" Social Security - by making cuts! - goes on.