What is entitlement spending

Area Ratings. Previous High Risk Products. Search Federal Vacancies. Past Federal Vacancies. Violation Letters. About the Yellow Book. Comment Letters.

Advisory Council. Related Publications. Contacts and Resources. Major Issues Facing the Nation. Meeting Strategic Challenges. Additional Resources. GAO Contacts. Skip to Highlights A statement was made on the challenge facing Federal policymakers in balancing fiscal responsibility and the needs of the people in the area of entitlement programs. Spending for these health care programs amounted to 1.

Federal health care spending reached 5. Before the Great Recession, the source of growth in overall social welfare spending relative to GDP was health care. But growth in federal health care spending accounted for only one-third of the growth in overall social insurance spending between and The increase in social welfare spending since that many Republicans seem to see as an economic problem is due to two factors: 1 the increase in safety net spending after the start of the Great Recession, and 2 the steady growth in federal health care spending.

Spending for the safety net programs has already started to fall and will continue to do so as the economy slowly recovers. The rise in federal health spending is due to a combination of growth in enrollments because of the aging of the population, the recession, and the introduction of CHIP and increased spending per enrollee.

These per enrollee cost increases in federal health spending have been largely driven by private-sector trends: most of the federal government health programs finance health expenditures, but the health care goods and services are actually delivered by private health providers. What is Mandatory Spending? What is Entitlement Spending? Categories: Fiscal Policy. Joey Donuts Mar 18 at am. Floccina Mar 18 at pm. George Will said that only the interest in the debt is mandatory spending.

I agree with him. David R. Henderson Mar 18 at pm. Floccina, Thanks. Ryan Mar 18 at pm. A report projects the ratio to be It is easy to attack the recent spending binge; and much of that spending may be ill advised e. But recent and proposed fiscal expansions are the tip of the iceberg; Medicare and Social Security are the fundamental problems. Live Now. This article appeared on Real Clear Policy on May 25, That sounds huge, and it is. About the Authors.