March 18, 2011
Charles Krauthammer still does not understand the concept of government bonds. He badly wants the government to default on the bonds held by the Social Security trust fund. It seems that the main reason is that these bonds are effectively wealth to ordinary workers, not rich people or banks.
Krauthammer complains that the government bonds held by the trust fund are “special issue” bonds. He must know of a meaning for “special issue” that the rest of us don’t. These are non-marketable bonds. That doesn’t mean that the government can just default on them as Krauthammer wants to do. The implication — actually the assertion — of Krauthammer’s piece is that because he doesn’t like the people to whom these bonds are owed, the government can default and there would be no consequence.
That obviously is what Krauthammer wants, but that does not make it true. If the government were to default on its debt to Social Security then workers would justifiably be outraged. This could have both political and economic consequences. The disrespect this might cause for the government may lead to a surge in tax evasion and ignoring of other laws (perhaps even copyright). After all, why should workers respect the laws of a government that steals from them while protecting the wealthy?
Workers may also use their power as voters to decide that if the government can default on the debt it owes to them through Social Security that it can also default on the debt held by wealthy individuals like Peter Peterson as well as Wall Street banks. There certainly is no moral argument for honoring the bonds held by the latter group of investors if the government has defaulted on the bonds held by the trust fund. As an economic matter, it may also be better for most workers to see the government default on its debt in this situation, even recognizing the incredibly disruptions this would cause in world financial markets. (The money going to debt service could instead be used to pay Social Security and other benefits for working people.)
At a more concrete level, the assertion by Krauthammer that the bonds held by Social Security are not counted in the calculations of the government debt is just wrong. It is easy to find examples where it is included in calculations of the ratio of debt to GDP, as we find in the Economic Report of the President. There is also no shortage of deficit hawks who eagerly use the $14 trillion measure of the gross debt to make their argument, including for example, Charles Krauthammer, a Washington Post columnist [thanks to Joe].
It would also be nice if Krauthammer could take 2 minutes to understand something about means testing so that he would realize that this is not a practical way to solve Social Security’s projected long-term shortfall.
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