August 15, 2011
It’s always fun to read Robert Samuelson’s column on Monday morning to see what silliness he is pushing to justify cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Today he has his plan for balancing the budget over the next decade (the country’s most important problem for people who never heard about unemployment).
As part of his argument for cutting benefits for the elderly Samuelson tells us that, “in 2008, the median net worth of married elderly couples was $385,000.” (Actually, if we check his source, it looks like the year is 2007.)
Okay boys and girls, can anyone think of anything that might have affected the net worth of the elderly between 2007 and today? Apparently no one at the Post has noticed anything or they might have suggested that Samuelson try to use more recent data in his column.
Naturally, Samuelson doesn’t suggest doing anything about the real cause of his deficit crisis story, exploding private sector health care costs. Nor does he consider any measures that might hurt the Wall Street folks that helped inflate the housing bubble that wrecked the economy. But who would expect more from Samuelson or Fox on 15th Street?
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