Long-term Fiscal Challenges Demand New Metrics, Mechanisms, & Processes

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Long-term Fiscal Challenges Demand New Metrics, Mechanisms, & Processes

• Accounting and reporting policies for trust funds, Social Security, Medicare, Veterans benefits, among other things, need to be reviewed and revised.

• The current budget time horizon [2-year, 5-year, 10-year] does not capture many long-term costs—e.g. Social Security, Medicare, pension insurance—and other major tax and spending provisions

• Cash and obligations-based budgeting is misleading for insurance and some benefit programs

• Budget controls have expired—and we need to go beyond “holding the line†to “changing the base†in spending and tax policies