View Research by Author - John L. Palmer

Publications

The report discusses the important budget events of 2011. It begins with the House Republican budget and the president's response. The very different approaches to health and discretionary spending and tax policy are analyzed in detail. The policy debate continued into the confused debt limit negotiations of July. The Budget Control Act finally emerged. It capped discretionary spending and created a "super committee" that was to propose additional deficit reductions. The committee failed miserably. An automatic across-the-board spending cut is supposed to result from that failure. The report describes its effects on defense and nondefense spending.

The United States faces a dire budget problem, largely the result of the aging of the population and soaring health costs. The president's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and the Bipartisan Policy Center's Debt Reduction Task Force both agree that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid reforms are necessary, although health costs are the far greater problem. They also recommend restructuring the personal and corporate tax systems. These commissions' efforts show that reasonable policy packages can get bipartisan support even in an intensely partisan era.

The United States is on a disastrous fiscal path. In the conflict between restoring solvency and stimulating the economy, the president's budget is more focused on the latter. Yet even before the recession Medicare and Medicaid, along with Social Security, accounted for almost 50 percent of noninterest spending. Payouts have risen rapidly since, and these entitlements are growing faster than the economy and tax revenues. Whether the 2010 health reform and other recent budget balancing measures have helped stabilize the deficit is explored in this report.

The chairs of a major study commission on our nation's fiscal future say it's time for political leaders and the electorate to come to grips with the tough choices and votes needed to put the country on a sound economic path.

Addresses three broad categories of questions: (1) What is the current and probable future economic status of the elderly and children in this country and how does this compare to other developed democracies? (2) What broader factors translate economic status into a fuller sense of well-being for individuals and how are these factors changing over time and across countries? (3) What are the cultural, political, social, and economic forces that shape change in the well-being of dependent groups?

After progress toward achieving major income security goals during the 1960s and 1970s, absolute poverty and welfare dependency increased in the 1980s, especially among the young. Major gaps also remained in housing affordabilities and health insurance coverage. This book studies the trends in this important issue and examines the prospects for continued progress.

This is the final overview volume of Changing Domestic Priorities, the highly acclaimed 26-volume series which documents the impact of the Reagan administration on the U.S. people, economy, and ways of government.

This is the final overview volume of Changing Domestic Priorities, the highly acclaimed 26-volume series which documents the impact of the Reagan administration on the U.S. people, economy, and ways of government.

The first nonpartisan attempt to place the president's social and economic policies in perspective, focusing on their historical antecedents, rationale, preliminary impacts, and the issues raised for public debate.

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