Finally, a high-ranking government official has come right out and stated the obvious. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, in testimony given to the House Budget Committee yesterday, said that Social Security benefits that have been promised to future retirees must be cut in order to deal with a ballooning long-term federal defecit. Greenspan urged Congress to consider spending cuts before tax increases, although he noted that both would probably be necessary in order to deal with the impending budget crisis. Although Greenspan again urged that current retirement benefits should not be cut, he listed two specific ways in which Congress could cut spending: gradually raise the retirment age to reflect the increased life expectancy of Americans, and linking cost of living increases to something other than the Consumer Price Index, which many experts believe over-states the rise of overall prices.Hopefully we'll look back on this testimony as the beginning of a long and sometimes painful (but nonetheless neccessary) reexamination of entitlement programs in this country.
Tony
Posted by thynkhard
at 2:53 PM EST
Updated: Thursday, 26 February 2004 3:23 PM EST
