The U.S. is headed for a fiscal meltdown. Even before Congress began calling for a hugely expensive overhaul of health care, the federal government was a staggering $56 trillion in the hole, in terms of unfunded obligations.
Medicare is a vital program for seniors, but is fundamentally unaffordable as it is currently structured because it faces an unfunded obligation of $85.6 trillion. Phasing out the subsidy forupper-income seniors is an obvious first step toward Medicaresustainability. Such a policy would reduce Medicare's long-runexcess costs by over $41 trillion.