“Fear-inspired hyperbole about the so-called ‘debt crisis’ and ‘explosion of government spending’ has twisted the public discourse about fiscal policy,” argues David Salkever, professor of public policy, in the New York Times. “The upshot is a feeling that our long-range fiscal problems must be solved today, lest we descend into ‘ruin’ (as Jeffrey Manns warned in an August 10 Op-Ed article).”
Salkever has been a health policy researcher for three decades, focusing on determinants and regulation of hospital cost inflation, access to health care for the urban poor, economic impacts of children’s disabilities and public benefit activities of non-profit hospitals. His New York Times letter suggests that approaching changes to Medicare and Social Security from a perspective of extreme urgency could have negative repercussions. He writes, “It’s too bad that we’re in the midst of a ‘crisis’ and cannot address these problems in a more thoughtful way.”
