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HISTORICAL FACTS: Pwbm - The Untold Story

The national debt's 20-year deadline and baby boomers' spending problem: 'a lot of incentive for every generation to try to pass a big bill'

Kent Smetters, faculty director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model, estimates that we spend 6x more on older than young people — or actually more like 10x.

Fortune

'Raise the Cap for Payroll Taxes': Former Commissioner's Social Security Fix as New Study Predicts Insolvency by 2032

Social Security trust funds may deplete by 2033, prompting calls for reforms. Experts suggest raising payroll tax caps to avert benefit cuts, while lawmakers debate solutions.

International Business Times UK

Here's where U.S. debt may become unsustainable as interest payments trigger a default crisis that even steep tax hikes can't fix

"Bond markets unravel sooner when investors believe that the government will not restore fiscal sustainability."

Fortune

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Social Security has 6 years left. The fix that sounds cruelest may be the smartest

A new Penn Wharton study finds that slashing benefits—not raising taxes—produces the biggest economic gains. Here’s the counterintuitive math.

Fortune

The Federal Spending Spree Will Make the Next Economic Shock Even Worse

Growing federal debt hobbles the government’s ability to respond to crises.

Reason

The national debt isn't $39 trillion. One economist says it's actually $100 trillion

"It's not a Ponzi scheme," Penn Wharton's Kent Smetters explained to Fortune. "It's a shell game."

Fortune

Trump’s strikes on Iran could cost American economy as much as $210 billion, top budget expert says

“One problem I have with cost-of-war calculations is that they really do ignore the counterfactual,” Kent Smetters of the Penn Wharton Budget Model told Fortune.

Fortune

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Making billionaires illegal by taxing their wealth wouldn’t even fund the government for a year, budget expert says

"What people don't realize," Penn Wharton Budget Model director Kent Smetters told Fortune, is there's "just not as much money there as people think."

Fortune

Checking the math on White House, GOP claims about ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ - Roll Call

Republicans say the 'big beautiful bill' will reduce the deficit, but economists say making the tax cuts permanent will do the opposite.

Roll Call

Even on Pause, Trump's Trade War Runs Up a Big Price Tag

Predictions vary as to the ultimate cost, but there’s no doubt that tariffs create economic pain.

Reason

Trump's Deportation Plan Would Cost Nearly $1 Trillion

And it would wreck the economy.

Reason

Trump vs. Harris: Who would be better for America’s $35 trillion national debt?

“We think of the United States as too big to fail. It’s not actually true.”

Fortune

Trump's Tough Immigration Talk Comes With a High Price Tag

Are Americans prepared to spend a trillion dollars to deport undocumented migrants?

Reason

20 Years to Disaster

"The United States has about 20 years for corrective action after which no amount of future tax increases or spending cuts could avoid the government defaulting on its debt."

Reason

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