Macroeconomics 11th Edition by Michael Parkin

تمرين 34

Mandatory Spending Is Hard to Contain
In Fiscal 2013, spending on the big three entitlement programs-Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid-was $2.1 trillion. The CBO baseline projection sees this expenditure rising by 70 percent to $3.55 trillion by 2022. Over that same period, discretionary expenditure, mainly national defense, is projected to grow by only 17 percent from $1.2 trillion to $1.4 trillion. The deficit is projected to fall from $1 trillion to $200 billion.
If politicians continue to avoid debating the projected increases in the three big entitlement programs, how do you think the fiscal imbalance will changeIf Congress introduced changes that slowed the growth of expenditure on the three entitlement programs, who would benefit and who would pay?