these back-breaking jobs we have a hardship provision in there so they can still get it earlier. that, of course, was erskine bowles with alan simpson as his wing man. is that something you could sell in your district, 40 years down the road, one year on the retirement age? well, look, let s set aside social security for a moment because i think there s pretty widespread agreement that social security is not the cause of our deficit problem. we do have a problem related with health care related expenses, and so medicare and its sole vensy is something that we do need to get a handle on a little more urgently than social security. i mean, andrea, we have to do something about social security, but we have the time i mean, really until i m in my 80s social security is going to be solvent, so what weather it comes to medicare sole vensy, we already added eight years of sole vensy to medicare through the affordable care act by squeezing savings out of medicare on the provider side. pr
republicans would say, look, you ve got to take a look at everything if you are going to really be serious about looking at the deficit. in the end in the big picture, ben, where do you think, if any states, that this might really make a difference? is this a debate that s going to resonate in a significant way? well, i think this is a long-time social contract that we ve had with our seniors, and it s something that helps keep them out of poverty and to provide for them, and i think across demographics people are going to be concerned about this. particularly if you are a caretaker for a parent who is going to be on medicare. you could be responsible for that $6,400 in additional health care costs each year. in terms of the sole vensy of the program, the president hasn t just talked. he has taken action. the affordable care acts extends the lifetime of medicare by eight years. he has identified additional savings within medicare and medicaid to extend its lifetime by another two yea
neil ferguson, kishor and wada. also, how in the world did one of the world s greatest sellers in the global bazaar lose its mojo? i ll explain. first, here s my take. president obama spoke forcefully in his state of the union about the importance of reviving manufacturing in america. if you talk with economists, they ll tell you it s a very complex problem involving tacks, trade, regulatory policy, exchange rates, educational skills. it is all those things, but when you move from high level policy to specific cases, you will often find within element that is rarely talked about. a government s role in boosting its domestic manufacturers. in a front page story last week, the new york times detailed how apple s iphone ended up being made outside america. the times wrote about the apple executives who visited a factory in china to see if it could cut the glass precisely for the phone s touchdown screen. when the apple team got there, the factory owners were already construc
the global economy is so troubled. we ll explain. next up, iraq. the nation is on the brink of disaster according to its former prime minister. i will talk to him about iraq s struggles, and we will ask two participants whether the iraq war was worth it. an important debate. here s my take, first. finally, it looks like former massachusetts governor mitt romney will win his party s nomination, so republicans are following a familiar pattern. they re nominating the mainstream candidate who has waited his turn, the guy who ran once before. this is the party after all, that had a bush or a dole on its ticket for about 20 years. it s also the party that nominated richard nixon on its presidential ticket five times. republicans don t like surprises. there is something surprise about this primary. it s the charges that are working against romney. see, romney s opponents have tried to change his upward trend at two levels. first, they called him a massachusetts moderate, but is th