According to a recent, highly detailed, and conservative estimate by Gokhale and Smetters (2005), the present value difference between the U.S. government's projected future expenditures and its projected future tax receipts exceeds $60 trillion. Closing this enormous fiscal gap requires a...

This paper determines the standard of living reductions that young, middle aged, and older households would experience were the U.S. government to cut Social Security benefits (but not taxes) to deal with its well documented (see Gokhale and Smetters, 2005) long-term fiscal crisis. To determine...