We have not often found areas of agreement with former President Bill Clinton, but it was a pleasant surprise when he spoke a few days ago on the need to reform Medicare, which is going bankrupt.
While Clinton does not agree with a Republican plan to rescue Medicare, he nevertheless scolded fellow Democrats who are more interested in scoring political points than in solving the problem.
Speaking at a budget forum, he said Democrats were wrong to conclude “that we shouldn’t do anything.
“I completely disagree with that,” he said, according to The New York Times. “I think there are a lot of things we can do to bring down Medicare costs.”
He urged Democrats to stop using scare tactics to block possible reforms of Medicare – and of Social Security as well.
“I think the Democrats are going to have to be willing to give up, maybe, some short-term political gain by whipping up fears on some of these things – if it’s a reasonable Social Security proposal, a reasonable Medicare proposal,” he said. “We’ve got to deal with these things. You cannot have health care devour the economy.”
We certainly can’t. Whether or not we would necessarily agree with any particular proposal that Clinton might make on overhauling those costly entitlements, it is encouraging that he recognizes the need to reform them before they cripple our economy.