trust fund

Over the last couple of weeks there's been an exchange between Charles Krauthammer writing in one of the austerity mongers' favorite newspapers and Jack Lew, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), writing at the OMB blog. This exchange illustrates a kerfuffle, that ignores the real issue surrounding entitlements and fiscal responsibility. more »

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Charles Krauthammer wants you to know two things: There's no "lockbox" for Social Security and there's no such thing as a free lunch. He's wrong about Social Security, but first things first: Let's do lunch.

Here's Krauthammer last Thursday, rebutting White House Budget Director Jack Lew: "There is no free lunch." And here's Krauthammer in 2004, in a piece called "Tax and Drill": "There is no free lunch." And in 2009, writing about the health care bill: "...(I)n medicine, as in life, there is no free lunch."

And here's Krauthammer in June of 2007, saying that politicians will never support a gas tax because it would be "too honest and open an acknowledgment that there is no free lunch." He says in the same piece that ethanol is "another free lunch," and bemoans Congress' desire to "perpetuate the fantasy of the tax-free lunch." (The piece was called "The Tax-Free Lunch.")

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We're working with some of the best state-level bloggers from around the country to help us tell the truth about key economic and social policy issues, and to draw the contrast between the rhetoric of the right and the progressive alternative. Please visit our CAF State Blogger Network page to see more. more »

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Progressives really owe Third Way a debt of gratitude. Finally, some austerity hawks that come clean about the true intentions of their proposals to cut Social Security. Unlike Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, who were shamed into insisting that their proposed cuts were only for the purpose of “strengthening Social Security,” in Third Way's report, "Saving Social Security,"Jim Kessler and David Kendall effectively admit that cutting Social Security should be a part of deficit reduction. more »

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