Clinton and Bush should apologize for our budget crisis

Start with Clinton. The 1990s were the last opportune time to deal with federal retirement programs. The country was in an economic boom. The policy-wonk president understood the problem. Because Social Security and Medicare are identified with Democrats, he could propose changes more easily than could Republicans. The oldest baby boomers, born in 1946 like Clinton, were more than a decade away from turning 65; so any changes could be introduced gradually.

Clinton rebuffed all efforts to get him to act. These started with a presidential commission on “entitlements” demanded by then-Sen. Bob Kerrey as the price for supporting Clinton’s initial economic program. In his second term, there was a bipartisan commission on Medicare. Clinton ignored both. There were other opportunities, including Republican signals that they’d like to deal. Republicans’ proposed changes to Medicare elicited the usual response: They would “destroy” the program. Good politics. Bad policy.

The fact that the last Clinton budgets swung into surplus mostly reflected good luck: The end of the Cold War created huge defense savings, and the Internet and stock-market booms triggered an unexpected surge of tax revenues. These ended with the bursting of the tech bubble and 9/11.