CLASSIC CNBC EXCHANGE - Rick Santelli Battles NYT's Tom Friedman Over Social Security: "You're An Idiot"
CNBC Video - Santelli Battles Friedman - Sep. 8, 2011
Great clip from this morning's Squawk Box. Transcribed inside. Runs 1 minute.
In terms of unfunded liabilities, Medicare is 6X the black hole that is social security, which can be solvent for 50 years with a few tweaks, but Santelli speaks through the lens of his 19 year-old daughter (as he often does), and channels the anger of today's typical college student, which to me at least, is completely understandable.
The correct answer is to cut war spending by 50% over the next 5 years, and use the savings to fund Social Security (without changes). Medicare, on the other hand, and it's completely unpaid-for, and incredibly irresponsible Prescription Drug Benefit (Part D), is going to need a substantial overhaul to survive, the majority of which will need to come from means testing of the wealthy.
Sep 9, 2011 at 7:11 PM
