I am sorry but that argument really bites. Reforming either of these two programs will take a huge political undertaking and a vast amount of political capital. For years Social Security was considered the third rail of politics - if you touch it you die. Everyone from both parties always talked about how Social Security was in trouble, but no one dared propose a rational solution because it would piss off a powerful special interest groups and insure your defeat in the next election. Bush has defied the conventional wisdom and has taken on social security, and it has not destroyed him (at least not yet). Now that something is actually being done, and the problem is at least being faced people actually say - well why don't we forget this and focus on a bigger problem. As if this kind of momentum can be created with a snap of a finger. We take care of it now, or we ain't getting another chance. It would be like during WWII after the invasion of Normandy, someone saying, you know, Japan is actually a bigger threat because they can hit the US mainland, so lets pull everyone out of europe, then lets beat Japan, and then we can go back and deal with the European problem. We will never have the chance to reform Social security like we have now, to drop it and turn to Medicare before finishing the job would be beyond stupid. Yes, Medicare is a bigger problem, but it can be dealt with after social security.
