|
Kling: The Truth about Entitlements
What this paper has shown is that various alternative solutions to the budget problem are largely myths. Social Security is not protected by its trust fund. Raising taxes on high earners (those in the top 1 percent of the income distribution) is not a reliable way to deal with the budget deficit. The only way to address Medicare specifically and health care spending more generally is to change the way that Americans make choices about the utilization of medical services. This will require either a stronger move toward government rationing or a shift toward more consumer sharing of the costs and responsibility for decisions about which procedures to undertake and which procedures to forgo. Higher tax rates could result in a large loss in consumer well-being with little or no increase in government revenues. Today, the American people must face up to significant structural changes in entitlement programs that reduce promised benefits. We have exhausted the alternatives. Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-11-12 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=309538 |