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Apr 12, 2008

Long Term Budgets For Entitlement Programs?

I regard enactment of this as a wildly implausible, but here it is, from the Capitol Insider, put out by the Disability Policy Collaboration:
A 16-member group of diverse and prominent economists and budget experts has proposed ending the automatic spending for large entitlement programs, such as Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, and instead establishing long-term budgets (to cover 30 years) which would have to be re-examined every 5 years. The group also suggested establishing a “trigger” which would force changes to the programs when costs go beyond levels anticipated in the long-term plans. The group, which included three former Directors of the Congressional Budget Office, was convened by the Brookings Institution and the Heritage Foundation, liberal-leaning and conservative-leaning think tanks, respectively. The group worked for nearly two years on the proposal, which members of the group consider a start to a “conversation” because they believe that continuing the status is not an option. The proposal would have to be considered in Congress and by the Administration before it could become law.

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