Medicare Shortfall Over Next 75 Years Is Only One-Fourth Cost Of Wars In Afghanistan And Iraq

Center for Economic and Policy Research co-director Dean Baker added some perspective to the debates over Medicare costs today. Writing on his Beat The Press blog, he noted that the projected shortfall for the Medicare program “over the program’s 75-year planning horizon is less than 0.4 percent of GDP. This is less than one quarter of the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”