Medicare and Medicaid Must Be Cut. Period

President Obama campaigned for reelection as a defender—and improver—of Medicare. Yet for all that he’s done as a health-care reformer, he hasn’t curbed spending on the government health-insurance plan for the elderly and disabled. Medicare and Medicaid, its sister plan for the poor, are together the largest federal entitlement programs. In 2011 they consumed $769 billion, or 21 percent of the federal budget, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. To lower the deficit, the president must come up with new ways to contain the expense.

Obama must also shore up Social Security, which accounted for 20 percent of federal spending last year. That will probably involve hiking the eligibility age and taxing the benefits of the well-to-do. Otherwise, the program’s retirement and disability trust funds will likely run out in 2033. (Then Social Security will still have incoming revenue, but only enough to cover 75 percent of scheduled benefits.)