Meyerson on Social Security ... Again
washingtonpost.com: It's More Than Social Security
This may well qualify as the single best take on the Social Security privatization debate, and yet ... I don't think Meyerson goes far enough.
Language matters. How we discuss something -- the words and phrases we select -- determines whether what we say makes sense. The fact that both Bush and his opponents have chosen to debate only Social Security, highlighted by the president's "personal accounts" proposal, betrays a lack of seriousness that promises failure. The nation's problem is not Social Security. It is all federal programs for retirees, of which Social Security is a shrinking part. Admit that and the debate becomes harder, but it also becomes more honest and meaningful.
Meyerson's onto something there, but he leaves out a critical component of retirement security and that is how the federal government insures private retirement - a growing timebomb as are the others.
In sum, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. will all have to be dealt with and the only honest way to deal with them is to do so comprehensively. It's a debate that both sides are missing, though.