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To Deal with Debt, Congress Must Slow Federal Health Spending

President at Paragon Health Institute
Brian Blase, Ph.D., is the President of Paragon Health Institute. Brian was Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the White House’s National Economic Council (NEC) from 2017-2019, where he coordinated the development and execution of numerous health policies and advised the President, NEC director, and senior officials. After leaving the White House, Brian founded Blase Policy Strategies and serves as its CEO.
Public Advisor
Paul Winfree, Ph.D., is the President and CEO of the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC). He has served in top management and policy roles in the White House, the U.S. Senate, and think tanks.

The White House is bracing for a standoff with conservatives who want to tie spending reforms to the next debt ceiling increase. President Joe Biden‘s intransigence on spending is disappointing given his significant involvement during the deficit reduction talks in 2011. The situation is even more dire now after Congress issued massive new debt to deal with COVID and the misguided lockdowns.

While COVID-related spending has pushed our debt-to-GDP ratio to its highest level since World War II, the growth of federal entitlement programs is a far greater threat to our country’s economic future. The Medicare and Social Security Trustees—a group consisting mostly of senior Biden administration officials—report that Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be insolvent by 2028 and Social Security’s trust fund will be insolvent in a decade. Unfunded liabilities for these two programs are projected to exceed $71 trillion over 75 years. And no program has grown as much as Medicaid, which used to be for the poor and vulnerable until Obamacare and COVID-era policies expanded enrollment to roughly one in four Americans.

The full article can be found in Newsweek.

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