Media
America’s Fiscal Gap
That’s the difference between the federal government’s spending commitments and its income – looking indefinitely into the future. Closing the gap through time requires an immediate and permanent 41.3 percent increase in all federal taxes or an immediate and permanent 35.3 percent cut in all non interest federal spending. More
What Congressional Republicans are Getting Wrong
When John F. Kennedy won the presidency in 1960, he won the majority of white voters who didn’t have a college degree. But he lost white college graduates by a two-to-one margin. The numbers were almost exactly reversed for Joe Biden.
Cashing In on Climate Change Subsidies: It Helps to Be Rich
Somini Sengupta of the New York Times has candidly shared an analysis of “how to get government aid to ditch fossil fuels.” Here’s a sample (Sengupta cites research by two colleagues). “How do you cash in?” she asks.
Why the Covid Pandemic Emergency Needs to End
By repeatedly extending the pandemic emergency every 90 days, the Biden administration has expanded the number of households eligible for food stamps and dramatically increased average benefits, more than doubling food-stamp spending. The administration has used the...
Social Security Benefits: Heads They Win, Tails You Lose
House Republicans – Raise the Debt Limit, But Stick to Your Fiscal Guns. Our Country Is Dead Broke!
Our country’s fiscal gap is 7.7 percent of GDP. This means we need to collect 7.7 percent more in taxes, every year starting now, to cover all the future spending the CBO projects. Alternatively, we need to immediately and permanently lower the path of federal spending by 7.7 percent of each future year’s GDP. Or we can do neither of these things and dig an even deeper hole for our kids. More
Social Security’s Massive Malfeasance
Should You Now Wait Till 75 To Take Your IRA?
Are US retirees foregoing large sums of Social Security benefits?
90% of Americans are likely to benefit if they wait until age 70 to claim their Social Security benefits. Yet only 6% do so. If you add up the loss of benefits from these decisions over the remainder of a retiree’s lifetime, the typical retiree is leaving $182,370 (in present-value terms) on the table by claiming benefits too soon. More
Health Care in the Senate Next Year
The committee chair will be Bernie Sanders and Bill Cassidy will be the ranking member. Ironically, both believe in universal coverage that could be achieved with no increase in health care spending. Sanders will need help from Cassidy if anything is to be done in a closely divided Senate. The problem: their visions for health care are so different, there is almost no overlap. More.