While a solution to our massive $2.1 trillion deficits will likely involve a combination of spending cuts and tax reform, if only to find compromise between both parties, there is a logical argument to be made that spending discipline should come before any tax increases. This video makes the case….
Healthcare is the largest part of the US government (all healthcare programs combined), extremely complex, and growing faster than our economy. If we are serious about addressing our huge deficits and debt, we need to reform our public healthcare programs. There are no easy options and we hope that this
It used to be that our government paid for costs as they arose and maintained a pay-as-you-go fiscal discipline. Not any more. One reason is that politicians have figured out that it is much easier to promise things today and borrow for them so that no one feels the cost
One of the reasons we are in the debt and deficit troubles we face now is because, over at least a century, we have shifted priorities from civil rights to economic rights. Both have always been important, but the idea that government must provide for economic “rights” has led us
What if we balanced our $2 trillion U.S. Government deficit just by cutting programs? The chart below shows that the “easy” fixes only get us to about a quarter of the goal. Then we have no choice but to look at the biggest programs, including defense, programs for our veterans,
This video explains why Social Security is in trouble and a number of options to fix it. Enjoy!
One of the first places many Americans look when discussing government waste, deficits, or unfairness is long-term dependency among working-age adults receiving public assistance. The outrage is understandable. But this issue is emotionally charged, politically polarized, and often discussed with far more heat than precision, so it is worth slowing
You often hear people say: “I paid into Social Security my whole life. That’s my money.” There’s both truth in that statement and a big misunderstanding. The Part That Is True Yes—you did pay in. Every paycheck, a portion of your wages went to Social Security through payroll taxes. Over
Spend any time around budget debates and you start to hear a familiar rhythm. Someone points to a program—outsourcing airport security, consolidating federal buildings, modernizing IT—and says we could save a billion dollars a year. The number sounds large. It is large in most contexts. In the context of the
This article is an attempt to think through the federal deficit in stages, starting with the relatively lower-pain options before moving into the more difficult structural choices. (See a different approach that still arrives at similar conclusions here). The first tier discussed below focuses on reforms that could plausibly reduce
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