Charting Our Way to Solvency

by George Will,Townhall

In 2013,when President Mitch Daniels,former Indiana governor,is counting his blessings,at the top of his list will be the name of his vice president:Paul Ryan. The former congressman from Wisconsin will have come to office with ideas for steering the federal government to solvency.

Not that Daniels has ever been bereft of ideas. Under him,Indiana property taxes have been cut 30 percent and for the first time,Standard &Poor’s has raised the state’s credit rating to AAA. But in January 2010,Ryan released an updated version of his “Roadmap for America’s Future,”a cure for the most completely predictable major problem that has ever afflicted America.

Some calamities —the 1929 stock market crash,Pearl Harbor,9/11 —have come like summer lightning,as bolts from the blue. The looming crisis of America’s Ponzi entitlement structure is different. Driven by the demographics of an aging population,its causes,timing and scope are known.

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