What the Super Committee Could Have Learned From Italy

Entitlement reform. Those words alone make politicians’ ears bleed. Or in the case of Italy, it makes their fists literally fly at one another. I explain in Fox Forum why the collapse of Italy’s government at the hands of unsustainable indebtedness should have been a teaching moment for the now-failed Super Committee.

Stateside, Social Security and Medicare are the two most expensive and fastest growing entitlement programs. Reforming them faces a level of resistance almost on par with in Italy. Generous retirement and health care benefits are so entrenched in Italian society that two deputies got in a fist fight on the parliament floor over pension reform a few weeks ago. America cannot afford to go down that path.

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After years of watching their premier put off necessary changes while entertaining himself with “bunga bunga” parties and embarrassing political gaucheries, it’s no surprise that Italians took to the streets to celebrate his government’s demise.

With congressional approval at a dismal 12 percent, Washington lawmakers ought to get serious about deficit reduction lest they too find themselves in the unemployment line.

Read the whole article here.