A few takes on Bernanke’s comments as reported in the WSJ ($$).
Quick hits from the article:

“If early and meaningful action is not taken” in reforming programs like Social Security and Medicare, then “the U.S. economy could be seriously weakened, with future generations bearing much of the cost,” Mr. Bernanke said [yesterday] in prepared testimony to the Senate Budget Committee.

Right. Try getting that one past the AARP. The macabre beauty of SS and Medicare consists in their ability to generate inter-generational class warfare: The older you are, the more economic incentive you have to perpetuate the problem and shun your responsibility in favor of taxes on those working presently – you are no longer, or will soon cease being, a member of this class.

“Democrats have shown no willingness to accept retirement accounts though, particularly if they are funded by payroll taxes.”

…Because then the money isn’t available for immediate expenditures, which is what they currently do with it. There is no trust fund, the program is already insolvent.

“[Bernanke] also encouraged policy makers to find ways “to make the labor market as accommodating as possible to older people who wish to continue working.”

…umm, like, maybe not increasing the minimum wage by 40%? What happens to the octogenarian greeter at Wal-mart when his wages go up that much?

Whatever.

From the (full text $$):

First, the budget deficit by itself does not measure the quantity of resources that the government is taking from the private sector. An economy in which the government budget is balanced but in which government spending equals 20 percent of GDP is very different from one in which the government’s budget is balanced but its spending is 40 percent of GDP, as the latter economy has both higher tax rates and a greater role for the government.

Here we see a revelation rarely made by people in politics, but a drum that is incessantly beat by libertarians and the near-extinct small-government conservatives. Government spending robs “takes” resources from the private sector, i.e., us, and reallocates them not to where we want them to go, but to prop up favored industries, to garner support among interest groups, to bestow entitlements upon favored districts and hometowns, and so on.

It’s all a game, and the only winners in the long-run, are the politicians.