by Dan Mitchell | Sep 25, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
Social Security is projected to consume an ever-larger share of America’s national income, mostly thanks to an aging population. Indeed, demographic change is why the program is bankrupt, with an inflation-adjusted cash-flow deficit of more than $42 trillion. Yet...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 23, 2019 | Big Government, Economics, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
I’m not a big fan of the current tax system. I’m also not supportive of America’s bankrupt Social Security system. The country would be much better off with fundamental reform of both the tax system and Social Security. Some groups will be reap especially large...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 23, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Society, Welfare and Entitlements
Every year, the Social Security Administration issues a “Trustees Report” that summarizes the program’s financing. So every year (see 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, etc) I cut through all the verbiage and focus the numbers that really matter. First, here’s the data...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 20, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
When I write about Social Security, I normally focus on two serious deficiencies. The program was never properly designed to deal with demographic change, which means there’s a gargantuan long-run budgetary shortfall of $44 trillion. The program is a very bad deal for...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 26, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
When I think about social welfare spending, I mostly worry about recipients getting trapped in dependency. But I also feel sorry for taxpayers, who are bearing ever-higher costs to finance redistribution programs. Today’s column won’t focus on those issues. Instead,...
