Yesterday was the 129th anniversary of Charles Ponzi’s birthday. Normal people don’t celebrate the birth of con artists, but a tediously left-wing columnist at the Washington Post, Eugene Robinson, must be a big admirer of Charles Ponzi, because he seems very happy that people don’t want to “cut” entitlements.
According to the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, three-quarters of Americans would oppose significant cuts in Medicare or Social Security.
The poll was dishonest, of course, since it was based on the Washington’s dishonest definition of budget cuts. In reality, the reforms that are being proposed would reduce the growth of spending. And I suspect that voters, if asked whether it is reasonable to have Medicare grow 5 percent each year rather than 7 percent each year, would provide more rational answers.
Heck, we already have good polling data showing that people support Social Security reform.
But public opinion is not the key issue. The bigger topic is whether anybody should be celebrating a government program that is actuarially bankrupt, particularly when it hurts minorities, penalizes job creation, and discourages savings.
But that’s just what some politicians are doing.
I’ve already posted a very funny cartoon about Bernie Madoff and Social Security, but hopefully this video has more substantive arguments for reform.
