Download or read book Nation's Long-Term Fiscal Outlook: April 2008 Update written by Susan J. Irving and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2008-11 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long-term fiscal simulations of what might happen to fed. deficits and debt levels under varying policy assumptions continue to illustrate that the long-term fiscal outlook is unsustainable. Despite some improvement in the long-term outlook for fed. health and retirement spending, the fed. gov¿t. still faces large and growing structural deficits driven primarily by rising health care costs and known demographic trends. Nearly 80 million Americans will become eligible for Social Security retirement benefits over the next two decades. Yet the real drive of the long-term fiscal outlook is health care spending. Medicare and Medicaid are both large and projected to continue growing rapidly in the future. Charts and tables.