Government accounting books debt immediately but cannot book the offsetting gains accruing from social services that historically result in lower future costs of policing and incarceration and higher revenues from citizens living productive lives longer.

CATO repeatedly gets this wrong.

Investment delivered to increase the productivity of those currently unlikely to be productive will result in significant GDP growth.

The problem lies in government subsidies to already productive businesses and demographic groups that produce relatively small marginal growth for their investment. The Trump tax cut is the latest example of such a misallocation of capital.

Acknowledging the realities of increases in lifespan and extended quality of life along with a strong public campaign against age discrimination would greatly increase the productivity of a significant sector of the population while incurring relatively little additional training costs. This would then justify raising the Social Security retirement age with consequential decreases in the cost of that entitlement program.

These changes to budget priorities become vital if we are to avoid significant additional borrowing in the new high-interest environment.

Of course, as time marches on boomers will leave the Medicare and Social Security system resulting in a significant reduction in costs. The possibility of a surplus in a little over a decade is conceivable.