Moral Questions in Public Policy

Weigel sums it very neatly.

Is it morally worthy of us to leave our children and grandchildren with mountains of debt because we cannot bring ourselves to reform unsustainable entitlement programs that were enacted when life expectancy was far lower than it is today? Is it morally worthy of today’s public-sector workers’ unions to defend what one columnist described as “massive promissory notes issued to government unions when state coffers were full and no one was looking”? Is it worthy of citizens of the world’s leading democracy to mortgage the country’s future security interests and diplomatic options to the fact that the People’s Republic of China owns vast amounts of American governmental debt in the form of Treasury bonds—and may well call our financial bluff one day when freedom’s cause is on the line?

He formulates the questions inside an essay on the "Church's teaching" about unions. Weigel, like Bp. Morlino of Madison (and distinctly UN-like Huebscher of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference) paid attention to the caveat that 'unions must bear in mind the common good'.

But that 'common good' also applies to questions about Social Security and Medicare, as he states.