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Vice President Cheney speaks at The Heritage Foundation’s missile defense event.

Five liberal myths about entitlement programs

Government spending is spiraling out of control.

Over the next several decades, spending on the big three entitlement programs—Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security—will more than double as a proportion of the economy. Without reform, these massive spending increases will squeeze other programs, including the military, and could compel unprecedented tax increases.

Many liberals claim that reform isn’t needed, and their budget plan fails to curb this ever-rising spending. They base this inaction on five common myths that Heritage’s Brian Riedl debunks.

Myth 1: There is no need to hurry on reform.
The Facts: Entitlement programs are big and getting bigger—quickly. Riedl notes that “Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid already absorb 42 percent of the federal budget and are growing by 7 percent annually, making them the largest impediment to balancing the budget.” And unless lawmakers act soon, “all 77 million baby boomers will have turned 55, leaving future lawmakers with the unpalatable options of massive, economy-stagnating tax increases, unprecedented program terminations, or the paring back of benefits for those over 55. Tackling reforms immediately will reduce their ultimate costs, spread the burden across more people, and give baby boomers more time to adjust their retirement strategies.”

Myth 2: These budget projections are unreliable.
The Facts: Incontestable demographics make clear that the retiring baby boomers will drive up entitlement costs. “The impending retirement of 77 million baby boomers is not a vague theoretical projection,” Riedl argues. As more and more boomers retire, the government will face increased Medicare spending, higher long-term care costs and Social Security benefits determined by a specific formula.

Myth 3: Economic growth will solve the problem.
The Facts: “Revenues associated with higher economic growth would help only marginally,” Riedl explains. In addition, because entitlement costs are tied to economic indicators like income, “the same factors that could increase tax revenues would also increase spending.”

Myth 4: Cutting government waste and pork is enough.
The Facts: Cutting waste alone will not cover the massive new spending on entitlements. “In fact,” Riedl writes, “offsetting this spending hike would require eliminating every other federal program by 2049 except interest payments on the federal debt. Non-defense programs would be eliminated by 2030, and defense spending would be eliminated by 2049.”

Myth 5: Letting the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire will solve the problem.
The Facts: “Losing the tax cuts would close less than 1 percentage point of the 10.2 percent gap” between current and future entitlement costs. And that projection from the Congressional Budget office doesn’t take into account the likely economic consequences of such a tax increase.

Why the Iraq surge worked

A little over a year ago, President Bush announced an important shift in American strategy in Iraq. Since then, violence in Iraq has declined dramatically and important political benchmarks have been met.

Lt. Gen. Odierno explains the surge at The Heritage Foundation.

“The truth is that the improvement in security and stability is the result of a number of factors, and what Coalition forces did throughout 2007 ranks among the most significant,” Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno told a Heritage Foundation audience earlier this month. Odierno recently completed a tour of duty as second-in-command of all American and coalition forces in Iraq.

For all the latest on Iraq, visit Heritage’s Progress in Iraq page.

Other Heritage work of note

Leadership for America. The Heritage Foundation continues to serve as a source of inspiration and ideas for lawmakers across the political spectrum. Speaking with talk radio host Sean Hannity on Thursday, for example, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said of Heritage, “I like them, actually. They’re a place of good ideas.”

Health Care. Millions of Americans today face unstable health insurance coverage tied to their employers. The solution, explains Heritage’s Michelle Bucci, is not another big-government health care program but individual ownership. “If individuals and families could own their own health insurance policies, they could retain their coverage and maintain continuity of care as they change jobs, move back into the workforce, or move off public programs. Health insurance would thus become portable, just like many other types of insurance.”

Entrepreneurship. The economy shed jobs for the second straight month in February, according to the latest government figures. The Left continues to push for lavish government spending programs to “stimulate” the economy, a misguided plan based on dubious economics. A better solution, explain Heritage economists Rea Hederman and James Sherk, is to “eas[e] the burdens on businesses and entrepreneurs.” For example, Congress should lower business taxes from the exorbitant 35 percent rate, “which is much higher than that paid by companies in most other developed countries.”

Family and Religion, American Leadership. Liberals in Congress are attempting to hijack legislation targeted at HIV/AIDS in Africa, Heritage’s Daniel Moloney reports, and remove language that promotes responsible behavior like abstinence and marital fidelity. The pending bills mark “significant departures from the current law, are hugely expensive, and would take U.S. policy off-course as it seeks to combat HIV/AIDS in countries with generalized epidemics.”

In other news

The House of Representatives narrowly approved a budget proposal on Thursday that includes large increases in both taxes and spending.

Representatives held their first closed session in 25 years Thursday night as members considered renewing the President’s authority to monitor telephone conversations between overseas terrorist suspects.

The Senate blocked a proposed one-year moratorium on wasteful pork-barrel earmarks. Just 29 senators voted to support this important first step to getting government spending under control.

In a situation that’s unfortunately all too typical of government aid programs, tens of thousands of Louisiana residents promised assistance after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 have yet to receive their benefits.

Al Qaeda terrorists say they will execute two Austrian tourists captured in North Africa last month unless their demands are met.

The EPA has announced stricter smog rules—and 345 communities fail to meet this new standard. Heritage’s Nick Loris and Ben Lieberman pointed out last month that “the existing standard is more than sufficient to protect public health” and that tightening the regulations isn’t likely to increase compliance.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other events at Heritage please RSVP at Heritage’s website. Or you can view these events live online. All times are Eastern.

On Monday, March 17 at noon, a panel of experts including Claudia Rosett of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies discusses censorship of news critical of the United Nations.

On Tuesday, March 18 at 1:00 p.m., author Allan Guelzo discusses the important questions of democracy and public order raised in the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. Chris Albright contributed to this report.