Pundits' Misconceptions About U.S. Health Care Costs Make Them More Anxious to Trim Benefits

The New York Times ran a piece with a headline complaining "public misconception of government benefits makes trimming them harder." The piece goes on to explain that the cost of the Medicare benefits received by a typical beneficiary vastly exceeds the taxes they will have paid into the system using standard discount rates. The piece tells readers that most readers do not recognize this fact, so they get upset at the idea of cutting benefits.

The desire expressed in the piece to cut Medicare...