Jack Lew Knockouts Charles Krauthammer

Jack Lew, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, had previously written an op-ed for USATODAY, which basically said that Social Security is sound until about 2037 and that it just needed tinkering to move forward. Charles Krauthammer claimed that Social Security was one of the drivers of the national debt and that the funds were not in a "lockbox" and were only backed by "worthless IOUs". Lew responded today on the OMB website to Krauthammer's distortions. He went directly to Krauthammer's point about "worthless IOUs", pointing out that they were U.S Treasury Bonds and that the taxpayer received the same consideration as other bondholders of the American Government.

Lew then recalled that he was one of those who participated in the early 1980s to put Social Security on a firm footing for the baby-boomers. He noted that when he worked for the Clinton Administration they ended with a projection of a $5.6 trillion surplus for the next ten years. Rather pointedly he remarked that President Obama came to office with a projected deficit of $8 trillion over decade. Lew points out that it was a series of decisions by the Bush Administration and Congress that led to the current situation. Pointedly he remarks that the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 and the Medicare Drug benefit were not paid for.

He defends his present boss, President Obama, saying that his budget calls for a deficit reduction of $1 trillion over the next decade. He doesn't mention but could have that the healthcare bill also reduced the debt by another $1 trillion over the same time period.

He concludes by reaffirming his statement from his op-ed that Social Security is fine through 2037 and has nothing to do with the deficit or national debt. Bang,Zoom,Charlie to the Moon!

I've written that I think one of the grievous things the GOP has done is get rid of the PayGo rules, which the Democrats had brought back in 2008. They did this so that tax cuts would not be considered as contributing to the deficit but it was a ruinous decision.

Are we ever going to have Republicans anymore that know anything about economics or even simple math? This stuff is killing all of us. I would argue it does nothing to advance the Republican's own ideology--even the far-right one.

Remember Governor Scott Walker told the fake Koch brother that Reagan busting the PATCO union was a moment that brought down the Iron Curtain. Whatever you thought of that decision, Reagan did it in public. Walker signed his union-busting bill in private this afternoon. Great profiles in courage--the Republican legislators running out of the Capitol through secret tunnels and the Governor signing the bill in private. That's not quite Reaganesque.