In this 34 minute podcast Dr. Paul Van de Water explains the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' recent call for an additional $1.5 trillion in budgetary savings to stabilize the federal debt at 73% of the GDP. He discusses the revenue option of limiting individual tax deductions. On the spending side, savings from Medicare drug pricing and greater beneficiary means testing are discussed and more generally whether Medicare cost growth, comparatively modest over the past three years, will pesist as the national economy recovers. Dr. Van de Water explanis the merits of applying chained CPI (Consumer Price Index) to index Social Security benefits (to generate additional federal savings) and raising Social Security taxes without limit on annual earnings (currently annual income is taxed up to $113k). Finally, Dr. Van de Water discusses the problem/s with applying "dynamic scoring" to Congressional Budget Office scoring.
Dr. Paul N. Van de Water is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities where he specializes in Medicare, Social Security, and health coverage issues. Previously he was Vice President for Health Policy at the National Academy of Social Insurance and from 2001 to 2005 served as Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Policy at the Social Security Administration. Dr. Van de Water worked for over 18 years at the Congressional Budget Office in a variety of capacities. He was graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Ph.D. in economics.
Dr. Paul Van de Water Discusses Recommendations to Stabilize the Federal Debt, Including Recommendations for Reforms to Medicare and Social Security (January 17, 2013)