On Borrowed Time: How the Growth in Entitlement Spending Threatens America's Future

by Howe,Neil

• ISBN13: 9780765805751
• ISBN10: 0765805758
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2004-05-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Entitlements represent one of the largest and fastest-growing portions of the federal budget. They are regarded as sacrosanct by lawmakers, yet many people see them as one of the greatest threats to the American Dream. On Borrowed Time argues that by sacrificing the future in order to pay ever-larger federal benefits through programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and federal pensions, entitlement spending has become a crushing burden to American workers.

Table of Contents

Transaction Introduction	ix
Acknowledgments	xv
INTRODUCTION	1	(36)
by Peter G. Peterson
Part One: Posterity in Danger
CHAPTER 1 The Imperiled American Dream	37	(40)
CHAPTER 2 The Myths of Entitlements	77	(52)
CHAPTER 3 A Fiscal Nightmare	129	(24)
Part Two: The Forces Driving the Projections
CHAPTER 4 Driving the Projections: An Aging Society	153	(36)
CHAPTER 5 Driving the Projections: Health-Care Hyperinflation	189	(46)
CHAPTER 6 Driving the Projections: Indexing	235	(24)
Part Three: From Complacency to Reform
CHAPTER 7 Social Security: The End of the Chain Letter	259	(46)
CHAPTER 8 The Federal Pension Bonanza	305	(32)
CHAPTER 9 Health-Care Policy: Facing the Painful Trade-Offs	337	(50)
Conclusion
CHAPTER 10 The Failure of the Libertarian Welfare State	387	(16)
Notes	403	(10)
Index	413