Lieberman On Entitlement Reform

Since the beginning of last year, Trudy Lieberman has written dozens of pieces for the Columbia Journalism Review on "entitlement reform," particularly the effort to dramatically restructure Social Security. Her overarching theme is that this is an effort by the right wing to convince political elites that a dramatic restructuring of Social Security is inevitable and desirable even though virtually no one other than the extreme right and the political elites thinks this is a good idea and ever though a dramatic restructuring of Social Security is unnecessary. She has an important message.

Budget Commission Coming

From the Washington Post:

Faced with growing alarm over the nation's soaring debt, the White House and congressional Democrats tentatively agreed Tuesday to create an independent budget commission and to put its recommendations for fiscal solvency to a vote in Congress by the end of this year.

Under the agreement, President Obama would issue an executive order to create an 18-member panel that would be granted broad authority to propose changes in the tax code and in the massive federal entitlement programs -- including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -- that threaten to drive the nation's debt to levels not seen since World War II.