Since Congress will never reduce benefits to retirees, the only way to make the trends sustainable is by raising taxes significantly.If Paul Krugman had written that, I would not have bothered reporting it. But coming from erstwhile supply-sider Bruce Bartlett, it's worth a headline.
What this illustrates is an important difference between economists and others on the Budget. To some non-economists, we can solve the Budget problems by reducing "spending" without touching entitlements. Economists--or anyone else who has mastered arithmetic and understands the categories in the Budget--know that the only items that really matter are Social Security and Medicare. Primarily the latter.
