WASHINGTON, D.C. Mar. 29 (DPI) – Three economists and one veteran statesman lent their names to a recent Washington Post Op-Ed warning of a debt crisis if the nation doesn’t address entitlement reform, and readers – with surprising viciousness – fired back that the latest tax cuts undermine any arguments to cut spending.

All the authors affiliated with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution have the gall to be age 60 or older – and, according to readers, are therefore somehow are not entitled to have an opinion on entitlement spending. One of the authors, the former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, is 97 years young. Two others, John B. Taylor and John H. Cochrane, are in their early 70s.

Basically the foursome repeated the old warnings of a financial collapse if the government continues to deficit spend, especially now that interest rates are beginning to rise.  And that collapse could be around the corner. An excerpt:

For years, economists have warned of major increases in future public debt burdens. That future is on our doorstep. From this point forward, even if economic growth continues uninterrupted, current tax and spending patterns imply that annual deficits will steadily increase, approaching the $1 trillion mark in two years and steadily rising thereafter as far as the eye can see … This string of perpetually rising trillion-dollar-plus deficits is unprecedented in U.S. history.

But the blowback in more than 2,300 reader comments was harsh and personal – how dare a bunch of conservative old men support tax cuts and then call on ordinary people to lose their benefits? Never mind that life expectancy has risen 17 years in men and women since Social Security was enacted in 1935 (just over 61 back then; today average life expectancy is 78.7 years).  Most analysts across the political spectrum agree that raising the benefit age 3 to 4 years would preserve the current benefit entirely.

The most popular comments linked to the Post Op-Ed were also the harshest:

In 6 months trump added 3 trillion to our debt with his scam tax cuts and this omnibus bill. But these authors are blaming “entitlements”. You people make me sick, you add, add, add to the debt, then raise interest rates and blame it all on “entitlements” Eff you and the horse you came in on.

For starters, how about repealing the $1.5 trillion tax cuts for the wealthy?

So predictable. Wait until AFTER the trillions of tax cuts are passed and THEN furl your brow and become “very concerned” about the deficit.
Sorry guys…..you lost all credibility by staying silent during the deficit busting tax cut fight. And during this latest budget bill that threw billions more to the military.
We know the score…..the routine….that taxes can never solve the deficit problem, only cutting grandma’s Social Security and Medicare.
So you five old guys……just go away. Everyone is on to your stupid plutocrat game.

Here come the “This is why we have to take away your Social Security and Medicare” crowd. They have been waiting gleefully on the sidelines for this moment. In November they need to be reminded that we have kept the budget in relative balance by taxing those with the means to pay taxes… and we will again.

“The recently enacted corporate-tax-reform plan is a good first step, as it sharply increases the incentive to invest and grow businesses, which will increase incomes.”
How can you argue this reasonably? It was well documented that corporations were already sitting on massive amounts of cash.

You and Paul Ryan make it sound as if these “entitlements” are just free government giveaways. I have been PAYING into these “entitlements” for the past 30 years via my paycheck. I am NOT going down OR giving up my PAID entitlements without a fight. The only giveaway here is the obscene tax cut Republicans gave to the already filthy rich, Praying for a Blue Wave.