Last week’s presidential debate at the Reagan Library elevated Social Security as a national issue that could reshape the 2012 campaign. Candidates spent the week trading blows about the role of the 76-year-old social insurance program. Leaving aside the political rhetoric, one thing is certain: Social Security needs to be reformed or America will face a dismal future. As one of the three major entitlement programs — along with Medicare and Medicaid — Social Security is contributing to a very dire long-term budget outlook. Spending on the three entitlement programs …
Ten democratic Senators recently issued an important call to action for Majority Leader Harry Reid to support efforts to get America’s long-term fiscal imbalance under control. One can only hope Senator Reid listens. As the letter notes, America is already $12 trillion in debt and, in the next decade, will dig itself even deeper by adding $10 trillion in deficits. In the coming months, Congress will be required to increase the debt limit so that America can continue to afford to pay its bills. But the true disaster starts in …
Members of Congress have been working frantically to bring the cost of the health care bill below $1 trillion, make it “deficit-neutral,” per the President’s instructions, and meet Blue Dogs’ expectations that it be “paid for.” As the Congressional Budget Office has pointed out, so far they’ve had no such luck. But the bigger problem is that in focusing on $1 trillion, Congress is missing the forest for the trees. All the estimates they evaluate are 10-year figures, yet nationalized health insurance, if it passes, will likely be around much longer than that. Longer-term …
President Obama has repeatedly signaled he would not support a health care reform bill unless it includes long-term cost savings. He recently promised to “take on key causes of rising [health care] costs – saving billions while providing better care to the American people.” But will the current health care reform proposals actually curtail costs? Recent estimates from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) say no. The 10-year price tag for the House version currently stands at $1.3 trillion.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently warned that entitlement-driven growth is unsustainable and would debilitate the economy over the long-term. In their best-case scenario, the national debt would become three times the size of the entire economy in the next 75 years. (In 2008, debt was about two-fifths of the economy). Given that the budget is already on an unsustainable course, it is strange that Congress is considering making things worse by tacking on an expensive national health program. While many members of Congress are claiming they can find …
Most people are skeptical about statistics, claiming that mathematically-minded people just bend numbers to their will. But when it comes to long term budget projections, economists from the left, right, and center all agree we on an unsustainable course, and that the entitlements—Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—are the main driver of the problem. One more testimony to this fact was recently released by the chief accountant of the US Government, the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Like the Congressional Budget Office and the Social Security and Medicare Trustees, GAO finds that …
