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The Social Security Trustees recently released their annual Report on the projected finances of the program. The media, advocates, and the Commissioner himself trumpeted that the Report had good news. A closer look, however, reveals this optimism is misplaced.
The post Social Security's Financial Reality Is Worse Than Reported appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

Using an accrual accounting basis, rather than a cash basis, the Financial Report of the US Government shows a much poorer picture of the government's finances than the conventional budget does. Even its uniformly optimistic assumptions project a clearly unsustainable future under current policy.
The post Another Sobering View of the Fiscal Condition of the Federal Government appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

The full funding of the ACA has been gradually eroded by the administrative and legislative cancellations of several revenue provisions. According to a recent Congressional Budget Office report, one of the important cost reduction efforts in the ACA—the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI)—has also failed.
The post Another Failure of the Affordable Care Act appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

There was a time in discussions around Social Security reform that raising the retirement ages in the program gained a bipartisan consensus, as with increasing life expectancies, improving health, and longer working lives. Now, in these politically polarized times, that political consensus is in doubt.
The post Likely Consequences of Raising the Retirement Age in Social Security appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

The Social Security Administration administers the Supplemental Security Income welfare program, providing monthly financial benefits to low-income individuals with disabilities, including children. If parents expect benefits later on, will they reduce investments in their children now?
The post Weak Science on SSI appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

Discussions about "the one percent" derive directly from Piketty's result that the top one percent's share of total income has more than doubled between 1962 and 2019. But new research by federal government economists Gerald Auten and David Splinter calls these results into question.
The post A New and Different Measurement of Changes in Income Inequality appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

The Census Bureau population projections through 2100 paint a sobering picture of an aging and declining population, with the workforce beginning to shrink as soon as 2045 and continuing to decline. This contrasts with the unreasonably optimistic view of the Social Security and Medicare Trustees.
The post Will the US Population Soon Fall? appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

The problem with bad SSA estimates has happened before. Clearly something deeper is wrong at SSA than the budget, and we need leaders there who are honest about cleaning up the mess quickly.
The post The Mess at SSA Deepens appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

It is claimed by advocates that the provision and expansion of home-and-community-based services care by states through Medicaid will save the federal and state governments lots of money on nursing home care because the average nursing home daily cost is triple that of average home care. But policymakers should just assume that a dollar change costs a dollar.
The post The Expansion of Home Care Benefits in Medicaid Does Not Save Money on Long-Term Care appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

A comparison on the accuracy of two prominent projections of Social Security finances.
The post Trustees v. CBO: Projection Accuracy for Social Security appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

A recent study definitively rejects that Medicaid expansions reduced either Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability Insurance applications or awards. These results counsel humility and prudence on big claims of cross-cutting program savings from large increases in government spending.
The post No, ObamaCare Did Not Reduce Federal Disability Rolls appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

Senator Cassidy proposes the government address looming Social Security insolvency by borrowing funds at the Treasury interest rate and investing them in the stock market. But this device is actually a tax increase, albeit indirect and hidden—it takes resources from the private sector to pay for public benefits.
The post Senator Cassidy's Social Security Solvency Proposal is a Tax on Pension Investments appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

We argue that debt, deficits, and health care spending will grow beyond levels projected by CBO and others. In addition, we show possible policy steps for reducing health care expenditures and other fiscal changes to put the U.S. back on a sustainable budget path.
The post A Macroeconomic Projection Dashboard: Can You Put the U.S. Back on a Sustainable Budget Path? appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.