Better Than I’d Hoped For

Scott Galupo very kindly links to one of my post over at his blog.    Galupo also writes that:

Right now, Romney boosters like Levin are chortling over the political difficulty Obama faces as a consequence of having paid for new spending rather than finance it through deficits. And they’re celebrating an utterly fantastical long-range budget plan that has no prayer of becoming law.

Like I said — dispiriting.

I’m not that dispirited.  Galupo is correct that Romney’s campaign promises won’t all become law.  Neither will President Obama’s budget.  Neither plan is realistic about long-term spending and taxing commitments (though Romney’s proposal to gradually increase the Social Security retirement age and index the benefits of future lifetime high earning retirees to inflation would save some money in the out years.)  But that isn’t the whole story.  We now have something like a consensus on how much to constrain Medicare spending, and are having a spirited debate on how to go about doing it.  I think that is a major event.  The combination of the Democrats cutting Medicare to fund Obamacare and the Obama budget’s proposal to limit Medicare spending growth limited the ability of Democrats to demagogue the Medicare issue.  The emergence of Paul Ryan (and especially his willingness to modify his proposals in the face of constructive criticism) has given the Republicans a real message on Medicare.  There is reason to hope that a Ryan-Wyden-style plan will save the government money while buying the same amount of health care for seniors.

That doesn’t get you to a sustainable budget by itself, but Medicare is, to my mind, the single toughest issue.  That we’ve come this far, this fast (it is a long way from Democratic Mediscare and “right-wing social engineering”) is encouraging.