Why budget fixes can't wait

The Christian Science Moniter reports:

After another year of failed reform, America's preferred plan to pay for Social Security and Medicare seems clear: Wait and see if we can muddle through.

President Bush's all-out White House effort to sell Social Security reform fizzled. The program that began in 1935 is now projected to be unable to meet all its financial obligations by 2041.



Congress did make some cuts to Medicare last month. But it's a drop in the bucket compared with the costs of a new prescription-drug benefit. Medicare trustees say the program could face shortfalls starting in 2015, with the trust fund dry by 2020.

The time Congress will make changes is when interest rates force them to.That will not happen until there's a crisis.That's the nature of politics.