For more information on research on entitlements, visit our Entitlements page
http://www.heritage.org/Issues/Retirement-Security/Entitlements
. Also check out our Budget Chart Book for updated PowerPoint charts on entitlements
http://www.heritage.org/BudgetChartBook
.
In this PowerPoint
presentation, Heritage Foundation Vice President for Domestic
Policy Stuart Butler illustrates how runaway entitlement spending
will force future tax increases.
While
discretionary and defense spending will decline relative to GDP in
coming years, spending on Medicaid, Social Security, and especially
Medicare is set to explode. Add in estimates of interest on the
national debt, and the picture becomes clear: Federal spending will
approach 35 percent of GDP by 2050, up from about 20 percent
today.
The bottom line,
writes Butler, is that without entitlement reform, a balanced
budget would require taxes to rise about 15 percent in 10 years,
and 30 percent in 20 years. Any politician who promises to balance
the federal budget without curbing entitlement spending (or
eliminating all defense and discretionary spending) must, by
necessity, support major tax increases.
View How Uncurbed
Entitlements Will Force Large Tax Increases by Stuart Butler,
Ph.D. (requires PowerPoint or PowerPoint
Viewer)