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Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
Author(s) -
Perkins David
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
australian journal of rural health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.48
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1440-1584
pISSN - 1038-5282
DOI - 10.1111/ajr.12068
Subject(s) - service (business) , politics , face (sociological concept) , parliament , population , primary care , metropolitan area , political science , medicine , work (physics) , rural area , public relations , business , sociology , family medicine , law , marketing , environmental health , engineering , social science , pathology , mechanical engineering
Despite substantial attention given to fiscal policy concerns in recent years, the federal government’s fiscal status has continued to deteriorate, with the enactment of tax cuts, a massive new Medicare entitlement, increased spending on defense and homeland security, and related economic developments. This paper provides new estimates of the nation’s fiscal status over both the 10-year and long-term horizon, based on the most recent (January 2006) Congressional Budget Office official budget figures (CBO 2006). Our general conclusions are not surprising: under plausible assumptions, the nation faces significant shortand medium-term deficits and massive long-term shortfalls. Dealing with these problems will require spending cuts or tax increases that are far beyond the scale of anything currently considered politically palatable. Our specific conclusions include the following: