Joe Conason: Reform healthcare -- and leave Social Security alone

[Bozita]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/02/23/fiscal_responsibility_summit/print.html

Reform healthcare -- and leave Social Security alone

During his fiscal responsibility summit, President Obama must not cave in to the privatizers and slashers.
By Joe Conason

Feb. 23, 2009 |

An iron rule governing summit meetings, at least in foreign relations, is that the outcome must be determined before any actual encounter occurs. But no such sensible precondition appears to have been applied to the fiscal responsibility summit called by President Barack Obama to convene at the White House on Feb. 23. Instead, he will host a broad assortment of advocates and interests carrying a heavy freight of studies, prejudices and definitions, each seeking to advance an agenda that may bear little resemblance to the president's own priorities.

While Obama may hope this cacophonous occasion will help educate Americans about the budgetary and tax issues we must confront over the coming decade, the summit risks serious distortion by both mainstream media coverage and right-wing propaganda. Indeed, the summit's stated premise -- concern over the future costs of "entitlement programs" -- is a political mistake that may taint this process before it begins.

For many years, "entitlement reform" has served as Washington jargon for slashing or even abolishing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the basic social programs that remain objects of conservative ire despite their enormous success in reducing poverty and improving health. For reasons that arise mainly from rapidly rising healthcare costs and an aging population, mandated expenditures on Medicare and Medicaid are projected to explode in future federal budgets.

Those real problems are habitually seized upon by opponents of Social Security, who lump together "entitlements" to demand severe cuts in all three programs -- even though Social Security will be solvent on its own for decades to come.

So when the White House raises the issue of "entitlement programs" or "entitlement reform" -- without differentiating between Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security -- that reinforces the message of the center-right coalition that now sees an opportunity to cut Social Security benefits and undermine public confidence in the program. That coalition includes several outfits, such as the Heritage Foundation and the Democratic Leadership Council, whose analysts once pushed privatization (although they are unlikely to mention any such forlorn enthusiasm now). Joining them are the Concord Coalition and other fronts funded by billionaire and former Nixon Commerce Secretary Pete Peterson, who has vowed to spend most of his fortune to promote his vision of fiscal rectitude.

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