Advance entitlement reform

Dire economic indicators proliferate. But even before the ongoing recession and stock-market dive began last summer, our nation faced a approaching fiscal debacle as a demographic trend undermined the future viabilitiy of Medicare and Social Security. That trend — more Americans taking money out of the systems and fewer Americans putting money into them — will persist, with or without economic recovery. And without fundamental reforms, both Medicare and Social Security ultimately will be overwhelmed.

President Barack Obama, recognizing that unpleasant reality, used his recent "fiscal responsibility summit" at the White House to renew his call for comprehensive changes in those endangered entitlement programs. He reiterated that plea in his speech to Congress, warning that the nation must "address the growing costs in Medicare and Social Security."

Though Mr. Obama offered few specifics in his speech, he previously has favored raising the income cap on the payroll tax that funds Social Security as one obvious step toward enhancing its revenue stream. He also told Congress that the Social Security solution should be accompanied by "tax-free universal savings accounts for all Americans" — a positive incentive that sounds promising.

However, President Obama's major entitlement-reform offensive strikes on the Medicare front. He proposed, in his speech to Congress, to deliver "quality, affordable health care for every American" while also bringing runaway costs under control. That challenging goal contradicts the president's contention, in the same speech, that he doesn't believe in "bigger government."

But just as Democrats, including then-Sen. Obama, shouldn't have rejected President George W. Bush's Social Security reform proposals without offering coherent counterproposals, Republicans who oppose President Obama's health-care ideas should offer tangible counterproposals on Medicare reform, too.

The status quo will lock Medicare on a track toward a balance-sheet train wreck. Medicare trustees warned last year that the system, on its present course, would run out of money by 2019.

Unfortunately, such familiar alarms about Medicare — and Social Security — have long fallen on deaf ears, perpetuating delays in dealing with their problems. With each buck-passing postponement of the hard choices required to achieve long-term solvency, the tasks get more expensive, and thus more likely to send politicians running for cover.

And with the U.S. economy contracting by 6.2 percent over the last quarter of 2008 (the steepest descent in a quarter century) and the Dow Jones Industrial average falling below 7,000 last week for the first time since 1997, entitlement programs can easily get bumped down the priority list. That would be a costly mistake. President Obama's plans for a national health care system might be questionable, to say the least, but the goal of entitlement reform is essential.