RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
April 2008, The Brookings Institution and the Heritage Foundation
Unsustainable deficits in the federal budget threaten the health and vigor of the American economy. When the next president and Congress take office in January 2009, they will face one crucial question that has been almost absent from the current election campaign: how to close the enormous gap between projected federal spending and revenues. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Gary Burtless, October 31, 2008, The Brookings Institution
While Social Security’s long-term problems represent a major policy challenge, the sharp fall in stock prices serves as a reminder that many substitutes for Social Security – such as individual retirement accounts -- have problems of their own. Gary Burtless analyzes how personal retirement savings accounts have performed historically, including over the past 12 months, and finds that retirement funds invested solely or mainly in the stock market offer a very shaky foundation for retirement income. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Isabel V. Sawhill, October 24, 2008, CNNMoney.com
Isabel Sawhill discusses the big three of entitlement programs - Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid and how they will wreak havoc on the country's finances (and yours) unless we scale them back. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Henry J. Aaron, September 22, 2008, The Brookings Institution
In the midst of the financial chaos enveloping Wall Street and threatening the U.S. and global economy, Henry Aaron says it is worth a moment to recall the quite serious debate just three years ago about partly privatizing Social Security, a step that would have exposed retirement and disability pensions to risks like those now confronting private investors. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Henry J. Aaron and Charles L. Schultze, July 2008, The Brookings Institution
With baby boomers beginning to retire and health care spending outpacing income growth, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security face an uncertain financial future. Henry Aaron, Charles Schultze and other experts propose a radical change in budget procedures to address the budget deficits currently projected for future decades. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Henry J. Aaron, June 24, 2008, House Committee on the Budget
Henry J. Aaron testified before the House Committee on the Budget about H.R. 3654, a bill that would establish a federal budget commission to "reform tax policy and entitlement benefit programs and ensure a sound fiscal future." Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
R. Kent Weaver, June 2008, The Brookings Institution
Kent Weaver argues that a new approach to Social Security reform requires the president and congressional leaders to agree on an overall mandate for a commission named through a bipartisan nominating process designed to generate a group that is likely to focus on practical, consensus-building solutions. Special procedures in each house of Congress would provide expedited consideration of the commission’s reform package and alternatives, while providing incentives for constructive congressional engagement in the reform process. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Alice M. Rivlin and John W. Kingdon, June 17, 2008, The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The next president and new Congress face a daunting set of challenges come January 2009: Iraq war, troubled economy, global climate change, looming government debt, taxes, health care reform and rebuilding infrastructure, all vying for immediate attention. Such a long "to do" list presents two possible tactics: tackle the hardest problem first or get the easy ones out of the way. Alice M. Rivlin and John W. Kingdon prefer the latter and would start with Social Security. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
William G. Gale, J. Mark Iwry, David C. John and Lina Walker, June 2008, Hamilton Project Discussion Paper
Despite their many benefits, the take-up rate for annuities is currently low because of behavioral biases and market failures. In this paper, William Gale, J. Mark Iwry, David John and Lina Walker propose a two-year trial to allow retirees to experience the consistency, security, and simplicity of the lifetime income stream guaranteed by annuities. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Isabel V. Sawhill, May 26, 2008, The Salt Lake Tribune
With Congress poised to approve a budget blueprint that offers no relief for long-term deficit woes, Isabel Sawhill says that it’s time for presidential candidates to discuss ways to reshape the nation’s fiscal priorities and return to a more responsible path. Right now, she writes, little is being done to prevent a disaster. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Alan J. Auerbach, Jason Furman and William G. Gale, May 08, 2008, The Brookings Institution
Alan J. Auerbach, Jason Furman and William Gale discuss the most recent Congressional Budget Office baseline projection, and use it to examine the causes of the fiscal decline since 2000 and the medium- and longer-term fiscal outlook. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Bill Frenzel and Ron Haskins, April 07, 2008, The Washington Times
As the baby boomers begin to retire this year, the burden of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will grow relentlessly. With more people in the programs and more expensive benefits, the nation will quickly encounter a budget disaster. Bill Frenzel and Ron Haskins say that dramatic reforms are needed to avoid budget chaos for future generations. Read More
PAST EVENT
Monday, March 31, 2008
10:30 AM to 12:00 PM
Washington, DC
Some of the nation’s top economists and budget policy experts presented a new paper arguing that the first step toward establishing budget responsibility is to reform the budget decision process so that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—the major drivers of escalating deficits—are no longer on auto-pilot. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Henry J. Aaron, Fall 2007, Health Affairs
Henry Aaron raises questions about the health-care budget and finding solutions to this long term problem. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
William A. Galston, September 21, 2007, NYU John Brademas Center
President Bush made Social Security reform his top domestic priority in 2004. In this paper, Brookings's William Galston examines why the president's proposal failed and the politics of Social Security reform. Read More