The Atlantic

There's No Way Congress Is Going to Fix Entitlements

The GOP’s tax cuts obliterated any hope of bipartisan reform, at least in the near future.
Source: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

House Speaker Paul Ryan may think otherwise, but it’s likely the tax bill that he helped drive through Congress last month has ruled out any serious effort to address the growing costs of federal entitlement programs for the elderly.

That’s a problem, and not just for Republicans like Ryan looking to shrink the federal government. It’s an issue for Democrats, too: They want to preserve crucial investments in younger generations, but to do so they’ll eventually—and begrudgingly—need to impose some limits on the rising spending for seniors.

The clear message of recent political history is that on a party-line vote, has made such a bipartisan agreement almost impossible to construct.

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