Former Clinton administration Secretary of Labor Robert Reich blogged last week about Why Balancing the Budget is a Stupid Idea. It's almost impossible to agree or disagree with his reasoning, because he doesn't provide any. Oh, well, perhaps this part supports his argument: Social Security surpluses show up in the budget as this year's revenues that offset this year's expenses. But in reality the surpluses are payments by post-war boomers who are still working — but who in a few years will be retired and making big withdrawals. What look like revenues will soon turn into big liabilities. The federal budget hides this inconvenient fact. And Reich concludes from this that Dick Cheney is right, that deficits don't matter? An alternative view is articulated by Senate Budget Committee chair Kent Conrad (D-NC): The exploding number of retirees will be ready to collect Social Security and Medicare benefits, but the temporary surplus in those accounts we now enjoy will be gone. Instead there will be massive shortfalls. And, in addition, we will have to pay back what we have borrowed from those accounts. That's why dramatically increasing debt now is a ticking time bomb.