Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Oneconclusion that fairly leaps off the Peterson charts is the degree to which the federal budgetary challenge comes down to health care and Social Security. Under any of the plans, the federal government increasingly becomes a health care and pension provider that also spends a far smaller amount on defense, dabbles in other activities and writes checks to creditors.
Taking the BPC plan as an example, the government in 2040 would spend an amount equivalent to 15 percent of GDP on health care (9 percent) and Social Security (6 percent), while devoting 3 percent of GDP to defense, 4 percent to the rest of the operations of the federal government and 4 percent to interest payments.