ENTITLEMENTS ARE GOBBLING UP FUNDING

The warnings have been clear and consistent: Mandatory spending by the federal government is growing at an alarming rate. And unless there are major policy shifts to offset this trend, the government will be spending every dollar it gets on entitlements and interest on the national debt by the early part of the next century.

This is the sobering conclusion of an interim report last month from the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform. The commission chairman is Sen. Robert Kerry (D-Neb.), and the vice chairman is Sen. John Danforth, a Republican from Missouri who is retiring from the Senate this year.

Political columnists around the country jumped on the interim report when it first came out. Former Sen. Thomas Eagleton of Missouri, whose syndicated column is published in several newspapers including the Southeast Missourian, was one observer who noted with alarm that the government is overwhelmed with financial responsibility for entitlements.

But other topics of national interest have taken over the front pages of newspapers and the television newscasts since the report was issued. Americans have focused on the sputtering debate on national health care, the passage of the crime bill and the crises in Haiti and Cuba. It is difficult for very many Americans to worry about the future of entitlements at a time when Social Security recipients get their checks on time every month and millions of dollars are spent on government-sponsored health care for the elderly.

Just what are entitlements? As explained in the guest column and charts on the Perspectives page, they are Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, federal pensions, veterans benefits and other programs that the government must fund automatically and without review. These are programs whose costs are determined, in part, by however many people are covered at any given time. This means the country's aging population is stretching the limits on those programs geared specifically to the elderly.

For most wage-earning Americans, that means funding for such benefits as Social Security and Medicare simply won't be available when they become eligible. They will have paid a growing portion of their income over many years to pay for these programs, but the money will be all gone.

Now that the Kerry-Danforth commission has identified the realities of mandatory government spending, the obvious question is what to do about it. The commission's next task is to explore options for change. The commission's final recommendations to President Clinton are due by Dec. 15. Will this holiday package add to the cheer of the season? The message is likely to be cold and grim.

A nation that has enjoyed socialistic paternalism from its government has, on the whole, been grateful that the entitlement programs have been self-funding and affordable. It will be difficult for most Americans to understand why the government can't just go on doling out the checks, even though the warnings have been heard for more than a decade that disaster was the likely destination for mandatory programs.

As serious as the situation is, it isn't too late to take action. The findings of the Kerry-Danforth commission will be some of the most important information to be put before the American people this year. It is time to get braced for the news, and it is time to face up to the reality that the system is breaking, and a few bandages aren't going to be enough.