But people seem to know that for today's younger worker, the Social Security status quo is very insecure, and promises only a lousy return. That alone may sober people up. To my way of thinking, the second most important reason to reform Medicare is financial solvency. The most important reason is it ought to deliver better health care than it does. One major defect of the current system is that pharmaceutical therapy is not integrated, as it is for most younger Americans, so that patients and physicians can trade off the use of drugs against other interventions.
Regulatory review is an immensely important mission.
By some estimates, federal regulation imposes three quarters of a trillion dollars of taxes on the economy each year. That's a third as big as the budget. So we want to have the best staff of the regulatory office scrutinize new and existing regulations as carefully and professionally as we can. Yeah, I think to some extent. But we have to take the responsibility for that.