The Unsustainability of the Current U.S. Fiscal Path: Making the Case for Pragmatic Reforms

• Published in: The CPA journal (1975) 2019-11, Vol.89 (11), p.38-45
• Main Authors: VanDenburah, William M, Harmelink, Philip J, DeLaurell, Roxane M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accountability; Accounting; Accounting departments; Bipartisanship; Birth rate; Borrowing; Budget deficits; Budgets; Costs; Economic development; Expenditures; Federal budget; Federal budget (United States); Federal government; Financial statements; Fiscal years; Forecasts and trends; Legislation; Medicaid; Medicare; National debt; Retirement; Social security; Social security taxes; Solvency; Tax Cuts & Jobs Act 2017-US; Tax increases; Tax rates; Tax reform; Taxation; Trust funds
• ISSN: 0732-8435

Social Security and Medicare laws, as now codified, generally require that benefits can only be paid up to available balances in the trust funds. [...]without legislative changes, at some point in the future some benefits will go unpaid. According to the GAO, recently enacted legislation is expected to add nearly $2.7 trillion to the federal deficit from 2018 to 2027, mainly from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2018; the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 only adds to these projected deficits. In 2018, $2 billion was spent on emergencies, as compared to $108 billion in 2017. Since 2005, nearly $430 billion has been spent on natural disasters; however, future climate change impacts are not accounted for by the OMB. n Housing markets are still federally supported. Specifically, the Nation's Fiscal Health states: Because the future is uncertain, the Trustees use three sets of assumptions to show a range of possible outcomes.