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May 2023
43m 44s

Checks and Balance: Entitled

The Economist
About this episode

While Washington debates the debt ceiling, the entitlements time bomb is ticking. The trust fund that pays for much of Medicare, the health-insurance scheme for the elderly, will run out of money by 2031. The fund that pays old-age benefits for Social Security, the state pension scheme, will be exhausted by 2033. Politicians need to agree to a fix, but it’s not clear that they will. What would happen if these funds reach insolvency? And how could that be avoided? 


John Prideaux hosts with Charlotte Howard and Idrees Kahloon.


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