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<blockquote data-quote="rickyb" data-source="post: 3654446" data-attributes="member: 56035"><a href="https://twitter.com/stf18" target="_blank"> Scott Fullwiler‏ @stf18</a>&nbsp; <a href="https://twitter.com/stf18/status/1005131122425106435" target="_blank">Jun 8</a>17/n In sum, always remember that govt ability to LEGAL authority and FINANCIAL ability to pay benefits are NOT CONSTRAINTS, they are CHOICES, just like govt chooses to pay for wars, cut corporate taxes, etc., all the time. It can ALWAYS choose to authorize and pay SS/Medicare18/n The only actual hard constraint on future entitlements is PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY to pay these benefits and maintain standards of living for others at same time.&nbsp;19/n Thus it is NOT useful for informed policy debates to have CBO &amp; SS/Medicare trustees to forecast &quot;solvency&quot; of trust funds in the manner they do now.20/20 However, it WOULD BE useful for them to say &quot;our analysis shows govt has CHOSEN not to legally fund these programs in full after 20XX; if it CHOOSES to do so w/o taxes/spending cuts, given assumptions in our econ model we forecast inflation to be X%.&quot; DONE! <img src="https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/72x72/1f600.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="rickyb, post: 3654446, member: 56035"] [URL='https://twitter.com/stf18'] [B]Scott Fullwiler[/B]‏ @[B]stf18[/B][/URL] [URL='https://twitter.com/stf18/status/1005131122425106435']Jun 8[/URL] 17/n In sum, always remember that govt ability to LEGAL authority and FINANCIAL ability to pay benefits are NOT CONSTRAINTS, they are CHOICES, just like govt chooses to pay for wars, cut corporate taxes, etc., all the time. It can ALWAYS choose to authorize and pay SS/Medicare 18/n The only actual hard constraint on future entitlements is PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY to pay these benefits and maintain standards of living for others at same time. 19/n Thus it is NOT useful for informed policy debates to have CBO & SS/Medicare trustees to forecast "solvency" of trust funds in the manner they do now. 20/20 However, it WOULD BE useful for them to say "our analysis shows govt has CHOSEN not to legally fund these programs in full after 20XX; if it CHOOSES to do so w/o taxes/spending cuts, given assumptions in our econ model we forecast inflation to be X%." DONE! [IMG]https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/72x72/1f600.png[/IMG] [/QUOTE]

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