Entitlement spending cuts still on Bush to-do list

The Boston Globe reports:

The Bush administration has begun sounding out lawmakers and other key figures about mounting a bipartisan effort to rein in the costs of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security after the midterm elections, according to officials in the administration and on Capitol Hill.


No specific plan has been advanced, and administration officials are proceeding gingerly given the political debacle that beset the White House last year when President Bush promoted a plan to create private accounts in the Social Security program. But they have been sending strong signals in recent weeks that they want to try something again after the elections in November.

The new Treasury secretary, former Goldman Sachs chief Henry M. Paulson Jr., has made it clear that a major reason he took the job is to tackle the rising cost of government health and Social Security spending, which he described last week as ``the biggest economic issue facing our country."

In his first major policy address since being sworn in July 10, Paulson noted that he has been told by many in Washington that ``reform of entitlement programs is just too difficult to achieve" and that politicians will ``demagogue" the issue. He said he believes that ``when there is a big problem that needs fixing, you should run toward it."

Entitlement reform isn't going to happen until there's some sort of budget crisis with a dramatic increase in interest rates in a very short period of time.An entitlement system that gives free medical care to Warren Buffett is extortion at its finest.