Joe Conason: At Last, Accepting Some Clues From Across the Pond

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



At Last, Accepting Some Clues From Across the Pond
Posted on Feb 25, 2009

By Joe Conason


At the brink of global ruin, many Americans suddenly seem willing to consider sensible ideas that were always deemed unthinkable, and to reject foolish notions that were once deemed brilliant. Soon we may be mature enough to observe how other developed countries address problems that have baffled us for generations.

Nationalizing major banks, temporarily at least, is a radical notion that today looks far more prudent than handing over hundreds of billions of additional dollars to the clowns and crooks who wrecked the financial system. Privatizing Social Security, which meant turning over another trillion dollars to the Wall Street geniuses whose reckless greed drove us into penury, no longer appears so alluring. Even a few repentant right-wingers—notably including Alan Greenspan, the former “maestro” of money—now gaze dolefully into the mirror and wonder where they went so wrong. (Here’s a hint: The trouble began during those lonely evenings spent perusing the addled works of Ayn Rand.)

So as President Obama convened his “fiscal responsibility summit” and then delivered his first address to Congress, the voices of free-market fundamentalism were muted in Washington, if not on cable television. The anticipated onslaught against Social Security from those claiming to represent future generations did not materialize at the Obama summit—and neither did the presidential capitulation that liberals had feared. Instead, the White House wonks insisted on discussing the actual threat to America’s future solvency, namely the swelling price of health care for the retiring generation of baby boomers and its effect on Medicare and Medicaid.

The problem with these programs, which have done so much to improve the health of America’s poor and elderly, is neither the size of the boomer cohort nor even that generation’s impending geezerhood. The problem is the rate of cost increase per beneficiary, according to a landmark study released two years ago by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (and described with admirable clarity by Ezra Klein on the American Prospect Web site on Feb. 23). ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090225_pushed_to_the_margins_finally/