Why Changes in Entitlement Programs Are Essential

To meet the nation’s fiscal challenges, changes are needed throughout the federal budget. That includes domestic spending programs, defense and the inefficient tax code.

But Medicare and Social Security reform are “a crucial part of the mix,” says Chase Hagaman, New England regional director for The Concord Coalition.

These two programs already comprise 42 percent of non-interest federal spending and are growing very rapidly because of an increasing number of beneficiaries. In addition, Medicare faces rising health care costs.

To meet the nation’s fiscal challenges, changes are needed throughout the federal budget. That includes domestic spending programs, defense and the inefficient tax code.

But Medicare and Social Security reform are “a crucial part of the mix,” says Chase Hagaman, New England regional director for The Concord Coalition.

These two programs already comprise 42 percent of non-interest federal spending and are growing very rapidly because of an increasing number of beneficiaries. In addition, Medicare faces rising health care costs.

“The Social Security and Medicare trustees have consistently warned that the programs cannot pay for all of the benefits they promise and that this gap will put increasing strain on the rest of the budget in the years ahead,” Hagaman wrote in a recent letter to the editor in fosters.com.

The two programs can draw on trust funds but this requires the government to cut other programs, increase general revenues or borrow more money. And without reforms, those trust funds will eventually be exhausted.

“Social Security and Medicare, Hagaman says, “are good programs that can best be preserved, as their trustees have emphasized, by early action.”