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Presidential Issues: Entitlements & Welfare

Entitlements & Welfare

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Trumpism Makes Social Security and Medicare Less Safe

April 22, 2016

By Ramesh Ponnuru

Donald Trump says Paul Ryan is wrong about Social Security and Medicare. The Republican speaker of the House wants to “knock Medicare way down,” according to Trump, and do the same to Social Security. Trump says this approach would cost Republicans the election, and also be unfair to people who have paid into these programs.

Commentator Michael Lind concludes that “Trumpism” is the future for the Republican Party, which will have to “move left on entitlements.” But it’s the future only if the future doesn’t know math.

Trump has said he would make Social Security solvent by cracking down on “waste, fraud, and abuse,” by cutting foreign aid “to countries that want to kill us” and by making the economy larger. But the program has a $10.7 trillion shortfall (measured in net present value): Cutting waste and foreign aid won’t get you even a significant fraction of the way to closing it.

Read the full article at Bloomberg View: Trumpism Makes Social Security and Medicare Less Safe