Trustees Report Shows Grim Future for Social Security, Medicare

DALLAS, Texas, April 22 -- The Institute for Policy Innovation issued the following news release:

The release of the 2019 Social Security Trustees Report has grim but unsurprising news: Social Security costs will exceed its income in 2020, Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund is set to run out of money by 2026, and the trust funds will run dry by 2035. Congress has the ability to stop the country's trajectory towards an entitlements cliff, but will it?

A new book, "On the Edge: America Faces the Entitlements Cliff," shows how the U.S. can move away from the crumbling patchwork of unsustainable government programs and easily address funding for healthcare, welfare, and retirement in a way that is financially sustainable long-term. The reforms proposed by the book's authors, actuary Mark E. Litow and Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) resident scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews, grants working Americans the freedom to set aside their own money in their own accounts that invests in and grows with the economy.

Avoiding the entitlements cliff is not difficult, it just takes adopting actuarially sound programs, write Litow and Matthews. "We would see millions of Americans start the slow but steady climb toward financial independence as they begin creating wealth that belongs to them."

"If Congress were to implement these changes, it would dramatically reduce the size of government and of its role in our finances and our lives," write the authors. "And we would expect an economic explosion the likes of which the country has never seen, as trillions of dollars enter capital markets instead of government coffers."

Copies of "On the Edge: America Faces the Entitlement Cliff" are available at ipi.org.

The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is an independent, nonprofit public policy organization based in Dallas. IPI resident scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews is available for interview by contacting Erin Humiston at (972) 874-5139, or erin@ipi.org. For copies of "On the Edge: America Faces the Entitlement Cliff", visit www.IPI.org.