entitlement programs

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Dems to Offer GOP Another $20B in Spending Cuts

...bringing total to $30B, which may not satisfy Republicans

(Newser) - With the threat of a government shutdown less than two weeks away, all eyes are on the budget. The White House and congressional Democrats are working on a proposal to cut another $20 billion in spending, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal . It’s the biggest cut the administration and...

Obama's Lying About Social Security

 Obama's Lying About 
 Social Security 
Charles Krauthammer
Mar 11, 2011 1:38 PM CST

Obama's Lying About Social Security

Charles Krauthammer thinks Obama's being dishonest about the so-called trust fund

(Newser) - Entitlement programs are choking our budget, but one of them, Social Security, ought to be “back-of-an-envelope solvable,” argues Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post : “Raise the retirement age, tweak the indexing formula, and means-test so that Warren Buffett’s check gets redirected to a senior in need....

America's Young Should Be Mad, Too
 America's Young 
 Should Be Mad, Too 
Fareed Zakaria
Mar 7, 2011 1:18 PM CST

America's Young Should Be Mad, Too

Our leaders aren't focused on investing in the future

(Newser) - Fareed Zakaria sees a lesson for America in the youth-driven revolts sweeping the Middle East. No, America’s democracy is nothing like a Middle Eastern dictatorship. “But if the troubles of Arab youth make us shine a light on the state of America’s youth, the picture that emerges...

Old People Rule America
 Old People Rule America 
Robert Samuelson
Feb 21, 2011 8:50 AM CST

Old People Rule America

Budget shows that AARP has all the power

(Newser) - The unspoken question looming over Washington’s budget battle isn’t how much discretionary spending tol cut; it’s “whether our elected politicians will take back government from AARP,” writes Robert Samuelson of the Washington Post . Both parties obviously quake in fear of the senior citizens’ lobby, unwilling...

Social Security to Be Drained by 2037

System will be permanently in the red unless Congress acts

(Newser) - Sick and getting sicker, Social Security will run at a deficit this year and keep on running in the red until its trust funds are drained by about 2037, according to bleaker-than-previous estimates from congressional budget experts. The massive retirement program has been suffering from the effects of the struggling...

Poll: Majority Want Action on Deficit Now

Public wants spending cuts ... just not to Medicare or Social Security

(Newser) - Some 56% of Americans want the massive federal budget deficit dealt with now instead of when the economy improves, according to a New York Times / CBS poll, and 62% say they would prefer the deficit be addressed through spending cuts, rather than higher taxes. That preference, however, changed when...

Social Security Is Just Fine

 Social Security Is Just Fine 
Paul Krugman
Aug 16, 2010 1:41 PM CDT

Social Security Is Just Fine

There's no crisis, conservatives just hate the program

(Newser) - Social Security turned 75 last week, but nobody felt much like celebrating, because the program is under an “unnecessary, unfair and—let’s not mince words—cruel attack,” writes Paul Krugman of the New York Times . Some Democrats and most Republicans claim social security is in crisis, and...

Tea Partiers Decry Socialism But Want Gov't Jobs
 Tea Partiers Decry Socialism 
 But Want Gov't Jobs 
BLOOMBERG POLL
Mar 26, 2010 9:20 AM CDT

Tea Partiers Decry Socialism But Want Gov't Jobs

Turns out not all 'socialist' programs are bad

(Newser) - Upwards of 90% of tea partiers are convinced that the US is creeping away from capitalism towards socialism, but they aren’t as stridently opposed to that as you might think. Sure, roughly the same number think the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to a new Bloomberg...

Eying Deficit, Obama Plans $447B Freeze
Eying Deficit, Obama Plans $447B Freeze
STATE OF THE UNION PREVIEW
Jan 25, 2010 8:09 PM CST

Eying Deficit, Obama Plans $447B Freeze

17% of US budget affected, not including defense, entitlements

(Newser) - The latest detail to trickle out about initiatives President Obama plans to serve up in Wednesday’s State of the Union address is one aimed at cutting the $1.4 trillion federal budget deficit. Obama will announce a 3-year freeze on $447 billion in spending, a measure that could save...

Forget the $250 Checks, Obama: Say No to Grandma
Forget the $250 Checks, Obama: Say No to Grandma
David Leonhardt
Oct 28, 2009 8:35 AM CDT

Forget the $250 Checks, Obama: Say No to Grandma

To cut deficit, we have to cut benefits to seniors

(Newser) - Economists are none too impressed with Barack Obama's proposal to send each senior a cool $250, and David Leonhardt can see why. The over-65 set has weathered the recession better than anyone—many of them purchased real estate well before the housing bubble burst, and few work in the most-battered...

Medicare, Social Security Will Go Bust Sooner

(Newser) - The recession has hurt the already-shaky finances of Medicare and Social Security, the Washington Post reports. Medicare is now projected to run out of money in 2017, two years earlier than the last projection. Social Security, meanwhile, is expected to be insolvent in 2037, four years earlier. The annual report...

Obama's Secret Plan to Control Your Healthcare
Obama's Secret Plan to Control Your Healthcare
OPINION
Apr 24, 2009 1:48 PM CDT

Obama's Secret Plan to Control Your Healthcare

President serves candy now, spinach later: Krauthammer

(Newser) - President Obama is going to need more than a “cash-cow carbon tax” to fund his goals of “nationalized health care” and “federalized education,” writes Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post. Obama’s going to have to slash Social Security and Medicare. But his current health plan...

Obama Vows Social Security, Medicare Reform
Obama Vows Social Security, Medicare Reform
Interview
Jan 16, 2009 8:05 AM CST

Obama Vows Social Security, Medicare Reform

Will hold summit to hash out ways to rein in spending

(Newser) - Barack Obama promised major overhauls for the country’s ever-growing entitlement programs yesterday in a wide-ranging interview with the Washington Post. We have “kicked this can down the road,” Obama said. “We are now at the end of the road.” Obama will hold a “fiscal...

Obama Targets Social Security, Medicare

Faced with trillion-dollar deficit, president-elect vows reform, trims

(Newser) - In his first foray into the hazardous terrain of entitlement programs, Barack Obama said yesterday that his administration would overhaul Social Security and Medicare to clamp down on government spending. At a news conference and in a subsequent interview with the New York Times, the president-elect said, "If we...

Paterson Should Say No to Caroline, Dynasties
Paterson Should Say No to Caroline, Dynasties
OPINION
Dec 29, 2008 3:16 PM CST

Paterson Should Say No to Caroline, Dynasties

(Newser) - Should Gov. David Paterson give Caroline Kennedy a chance to serve New York in the Senate? No! “Dynasties suck,” reasons Alex Pareene of Gawker, and we should take the opportunity to quash this one. Although it’s not fair, Caroline has become the left’s Sarah Palin, and...

Don't Take the 'Gold' Out of Americans' Golden Years

And why is retirement reform taboo?

(Newser) - Snow White’s dwarf pals are so happy to go to work that they sing about it, “and they’re 71 years old,” writes Irwin Stelzer of the Weekly Standard. “So why do so many of us less vertically disadvantaged worry about” extending the retirement age? Average...

McCain Vows to Balance the Budget
McCain Vows
to Balance
the Budget
Jul 7, 2008 1:44 PM CDT

McCain Vows to Balance the Budget

Social Security reform one scenario; Dems call plan unrealistic

(Newser) - John McCain will pledge to balance the budget by the end of his first term, Politico reports, promising spending and entitlement programs, including Social Security, in a policy paper released today. McCain is renewing a promise he’d backed off from in April—a vow likely to excite his fellow...

Record 28 Million Americans to Get Food Stamps

Slip into poverty a grim economic indicator

(Newser) - In an economic indicator that paints a grim future for swaths of the US population, an all-time record 28 million Americans are expected to be close enough to poverty to receive $36 billion in food stamps in the coming fiscal year, reports the New York Times. There is a surge...

Stories 21 - 38 | << Prev