Although one of the main drivers of Medicare’s unsustainable cost structure is that as the baby boomer generation retires, more people will be enlisting and using its services, this is not the only driver.
Provocative Social Security Reforms
America has a significant, current and growing problem with both the absolute amount of entitlement spending, as well as the portion of total Federal governmental spending represented by this spending category.
Medicaid Expansion: Put It on My Tab
Sequestration will reduce the rate of growth in federal spending, but it nonetheless presented something of a predicament for budget hawks.
Savings Don’t Score Any Points with CBO
In 1974, Congress created the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to provide a nonpartisan independent analysis of budgetary and economic issues. CBO provides cost estimates of legislation determines the impact on federal spending for at least five years and up to 10 years from enactment.
Owe Back Taxes? Have Some More Cash
It has long been clear that, when monitoring the activities of the federal government, one must often suspend natural expectations for sanity and integrity. For example, anyone who fails to pay taxes should be last in line to collect benefits paid for by taxpayers. But if the results of four recent reports are any indication, tax deadbeats are raking in federal cash.
Next Steps for Healthcare Reform
While no one can be sure of the outcome of the Supreme Court case on Obamacare, if the Court finds the law is unconstitutional, Congress will be forced to consider a new approach to providing more affordable access to healthcare for millions of Americans.
State and Local Government Defined Benefit Plans Are “Inherently Flawed”
On January 10, 2012, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) released a report on state and local government defined benefit pension plans in which he detailed the risks associated with the nation’s $4.4 trillion public pension debt, calling the defined benefit pensions structure “inherently flawed in the state and local government setting.” This massive liability is dangerous for taxpayers and could mean future cuts in services, reductions in benefits, higher taxes, or a combination of these less-than-desirable options.
Federal Contractor Pensions Protected at Taxpayers’ Expense
Taxpayers may be surprised to learn that they are currently bankrolling the retirement plans of profitable, private sector companies. With a record-breaking national debt, a sinking economy, and millions of Americans facing losses to their own retirement accounts, taxpayers should not be on the hook for tens of billions of dollars for private contractor pensions and benefits.
Government in the Grocery Cart: $15 Billion to Influence Consumer Behavior
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is wrought with onerous mandates, tax increases, Medicare cuts, unfunded Medicaid expansions, and numerous budgetary gimmicks. One egregious provision in the PPACA included $500 million in FY 2010 for the Prevention and Public Health Fund. On February 9, 2011, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced an additional $750 million “investment” for FY 2011 in the Prevention and Public Health Fund. These new dollars will “help prevent tobacco use, obesity, heart disease, stroke, and cancer; increase immunizations; and empower individuals and communities with tools and resources for local prevention and health initiatives.”
Congress and the Criminal CLASS
When President Obama signed his contentious healthcare bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), on March 23, 2010, his administration and a Democratic Congress had spent months convincing many lawmakers, pundits, and voters that expanding subsidized healthcare was not only the right thing to do, but that it would be beneficial for taxpayers in the long term. Fiscal conservatives (including Citizens Against Government Waste) howled that the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) 10-year, $210 billion deficit reduction estimate for the bill was wildly overstated. But the CBO is supposed to be a nonpartisan judge, and advocates on both sides of the aisle have long cited its findings as backing for a variety of causes. Accordingly, cries of fuzzy math or budget gimmickry fell on deaf ears.