Restoring Fiscal Sanity: Meeting the Long-Run Challenge

The federal budget is on an unsustainable path. Increased longevity, the retirement of the large baby boom generation, and rapidly increasing medical costs will drive spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid sharply upward over the next three decades unless their current structure is radically changed. At this public release of the new Brookings book, Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2005, experts and policymakers will provide an assessment of the long-run outlook for the federal budget and suggest specific steps that could be taken to increase government revenues and reduce spending, especially on the big three entitlement programs.