Social Security and Medicare from a Trust Fund and Budget Perspective

According to the annual reports of the Social Security and Medicare trustees, the financial outlook for the two programs is not favorable. Under the central forecasts reported for the past 16 years under both Republican and Democratic Administrations, both programs face significant long-range
financing problems arising largely from the aging of the population and the unrelenting rise in the price of health care. This Issue Brief examines the problem from a budget and economic perspective.