By law, the Medicare trustees were required to issue a formal Medicare-funding warning. This is supposed to require President Biden to respond within 15 days of submitting his next budget and require Congress to consider any legislation to address the problem on an expedited basis. It has unfortunately been the default for the president and lawmakers of both parties to ignore this warning. But Democrats propose to go further than merely ignoring the problem.

Right now, instead of grappling with fiscal reality, Democrats are rushing to enact an additional $4.1 trillion in new spending (a portion of it, it should be noted, with Republicans’ blessing). Among the extravagant ideas being proposed in the budget is to add dental, vision, and hearing benefits to the crumbling Medicare system. While technically, such benefits would apply to a different portion of Medicare than the hospital trust fund, it’s irresponsible to pretend that money doesn’t all ultimately come from the same bank account.

If Democrats have to rely on a combination of tax increases, savings, and more debt issuance to pay for $4.1 trillion in new obligations, those fiscal resources will no longer be available to address the challenges facing the finances of Medicare and Social Security. If the so-called Democratic moderates are sincere in their concerns about the nation’s unsustainable debt, the new reports from the Social Security and Medicare trustees should convince them to change course, ditch their party’s reckless liberal agenda, and act responsibly to address another crisis that is staring us in the face.