November 24, 2011
The Washington Post is continuing its habit of ignoring journalistic standards by carrying its Social Security and Medicare cutting crusade to its news pages. A Thanksgiving day piece began by ominously warning readers:
“Will the “supercommittee” turn out to be a useful failure?
“Two days after its death, this idea is the committee’s last chance to matter. There is hope that its debacle could pave the way for some deal — by clarifying the issues and suggesting new areas of common ground.”
Of course any deal, as the article points out, is likely to include cuts to Social Security and Medicare. With the vast majority of older workers approaching retirement with little other than these programs to support them (thanks to the disastrous failure of the polices supported by the Washington Post and the economists it views as experts), there is no obvious policy reason to want to see large cuts to these programs. And cuts to these programs are hugely unpopular across the political spectrum, including among Republicans and self-identified conservatives.
For these reasons, the prospect that the supercommittee’s failure might ultimate lead to a deal that involves cuts to Social Security and Medicare would not be viewed as grounds for “hope” for the vast majority of the American public. This is only the basis for hope for a small group of wealthy people and Washington pundits. Such cuts would be a disaster for almost everyone else.
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