The Libertarian: “The Perils Of Progressivism”

Use the proper benchmark to explore questions of what’s fair.

Many think that balancing the federal budget would require deep cuts in entitlement programs. This paper shows to the contrary that the budget can be balanced within 15 years through modest and sustained federal spending restraint and moderately higher economic growth. Key to this restraint is to limit the growth in the average future value of entitlement benefits per recipient to today’s level, after adjusting for inflation and rising healthcare costs. 

Many correspondents have sent me views of Brazil’s fiscal situation. Some quotes follow. (Anonymous. On the one hand, credit where it is due. On the other hand, these are personal emails which I didn’t check for permission to forward, and I don’t want to out people for corresponding with me! I also didn’t check any numbers.)