I attended a talk yesterday evening at New York University's Stern School of Business given by Pete Peterson. His new book, Running on Empty, details his opinions on American budget, trade and savings deficits. He is a centrist whose views do not adhere to either party's orthodoxy and, while one can quibble with his prescriptions, his diagnosis is indisputable: runaway entitlement spending, which escalates automatically forever, will bankrupt America unless reformed. This includes the unfunded liability in Social Security, which is both the subject of much debate and dwarfed by the unfunded liability in Medicare/Medicaid. If politicians were subject to the same laws on financial disclosure that are being wielded against Enron and WorldCom, Congress would be doing hard time.

Finally, we have a President willing to tackle this problem before it reaches the crisis stage. The sooner reforms are enacted the less painful they will be. Unfortunately, the Democrats are not in a mood to deal. Social Security taxes have been raised 39 times to "fix the system" (13 hikes to the rate and 26 hikes to the amount of income subject to taxation), but, of course, it is still broken. Mr. Peterson mentioned that former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey told him that the Democrats' plan was a "no plan plan." Their strategy of "no" to all reform ideas imply they simply want to resort to more tax increases, which even some Democrats say could backfire on them.

Some Democrats have courageously thought progressively on entitlement reform, rather than assume the typical Democratic reactionary posture. But politics generally force them back on the reservation because in order to win the votes of the Democratic party's base, which leans heavily left, Democratic politicians must pander to their every economically unsound desire. Back in 2003, Roll Call's Mort Kondracke noted current DNC Chairman Howard Dean's about-face on entitlement reform. It may be that Democrats such as Kerrey, who have the luxury of being out of office, might be the only chance we have to make real progress.

Mr. Peterson related the story of speaking with Margaret Thatcher, who told him politicians never make tough decisions when they can pass them along to future generations. President Bush has stuck his neck out to do something that he could easily have ignored, but instead chose to tackle a tough issue because it is the right thing to do. Where are the Democrats with a simliar philosophy? Only genuine bi-partisan efforts can tame the entitlement monster, which will otherwise devour America's economic future.