@H2O MAN,
http://www.lifenews.com/2010/11/15/bio-3212/ (H2O's link)
Quote:Some years down the pike, we’re going to get the real solution, which is going to be a combination of death panels and sales taxes. It’s going to be that we’re actually going to take Medicare under control, and we’re going to have to get some additional revenue, probably from a VAT. But it’s not going to happen now,” he said.
Krugman said if the debt commission “were going to do reality therapy, they should have said, ‘OK, look, Medicare is going to have to decide what it’s going to pay for. And at least for starters, it’s going to have to decide which medical procedures are not effective at all and should not be paid for at all.’”
Something's missing here. Medicare already decides what it will and will not pay for. And that deficit reduction panel suggests we eventually raise the Social Security age to 69. That will not only defer payments for a few years, but there will be fewer beneficiaries. A lot more people are going to be dead before the benefits kick in.