Without any symptoms, it's hard to say that one has an illness.
There are few incentives in the current system for participants or providers to be cost conscious.
The tax cut we put in place for next year is relatively modest. We probably can swallow that OK, but over the years the size of the tax cut grows exponentially.
They fight so much for two reasons. One is they don't want to be blamed for breaking the spending caps. And secondly, they don't want to be blamed for spending the Social Security surplus on non-Social Security problems.
It would be very surprising if we went through the next five years without some contractions or sluggish growth.
Medicare spending has slowed dramatically in the last year. It's now growing at less than 2 percent, which is the slowest rate of growth since the program started in 1965.
The Republicans would lose the cover they have from the President being on board. They'd have to fashion a budget resolution on their own.
We'll have a different set of values, and society will adapt. That doesn't mean these changes are all good, just because we will accept them. But the 'Chicken Little' view of history isn't correct. Changes take place gradually, and people and institutions adapt.
This has to be viewed with some skepticism.
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