September 25, 2011
Thomas Friedman made another pitch for a “Grand Bargain” in his column today. (This phrase does indeed appear in capital letters in Friedman’s column.) The grand bargain involves cuts to Medicare and Social Security (which appear only as “entitlements” in Friedman’s column) in exchange for stimulus.
There is no doubt that the economy needs more stimulus. The economy is losing close to $100 billion a month in lost output as a result of the collapse of the housing bubble. Furthermore, the longer this downturn persists the more people will see their lives ruined. Families are breaking up, houses are being lost and the long-term unemployed may lose the opportunity to ever work again. (All of this could have been prevented if people who are paid to opine on the economy, like Friedman, had been capable of seeing an $8 trillion housing bubble.)
However, it is not clear why there should be any cuts in Medicare and Social Security as a quid pro quo. The cohorts nearing retirement, who would almost certainly be prime victims of Friedman’s Grand Bargain, have seen most of their wealth disappear as a result of the collapse of the housing bubble. Why does it make sense to hit them again with cuts to Medicare and Social Security?
It might make more sense to hit Wall Street with a financial speculation tax, which could raise more than $1.5 trillion over the next decade. It might also make more sense to reduce payments to the pharmaceutical industry for drugs purchased through Medicare. This could easily save more than $300 billion over the next decade.
In fact, serious people would be focused on reducing health care costs more generally. We spend more than twice as much per person for our health care as people in Canada, Germany and other wealthy countries with nothing obvious to show for this in terms of outcomes. If we paid the same amount per person for our health care as Canada or Germany, it would save the government close to $6 trillion over the next decade.
People more familiar with economics might be pointing to the possibility of raising large amounts of revenue by taxing financial speculation. They might also focus on fixing our private health care system so that it does not threaten to bankrupt the country. But, Friedman would rather take away Medicare and Social Security for retired workers.
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