The nation’s fiscal trajectory is unsustainable, experts warned last week at a panel discussion co-hosted by Hofstra University and The Concord Coalition at the site of the first presidential debate.
The nation’s fiscal trajectory is unsustainable, experts warned last week at a panel discussion co-hosted by Hofstra University and The Concord Coalition at the site of the first presidential debate.
Concord Executive Director Robert L. Bixby gave the crowd of students, faculty and others a presentation on the troubling long-term trends in the federal budget, warning that an aging population and higher health care costs will cause large programs such as Social Security and Medicare to grow faster than projected revenues, resulting in unsustainably higher debt. This, in turn, could lead to higher interest costs, diminished economic growth and a squeeze on other spending priorities.
Nonetheless, panelists said the prospects for reform are remote, thanks to a number of political challenges.
Joseph Antos, the William H. Taylor scholar in health care and retirement policy at the American Enterprise Institute, discussed pressures on the federal budget from rising health care costs.
“Why can’t we restrain (health care) costs?” Antos asked. “Spending cuts don’t win elections,” he said, noting that both major-party presidential nominees this year have called for expansions of major health care programs.
Partisan polarization and heavily gerrymandered districts make it difficult for pragmatic lawmakers capable of constructing reasonable, sustainable budgets, said Joseph Minarik, senior vice president and director of research for the Committee on Economic Development.
Earlier in the day, Concord Director of Government Relations Phil LaRue conducted an interactive federal budget exercise with more than 70 Hofstra students.
