This is the five-minute version of a speech by Brian Riedl, lead budget analyst for the Heritage Foundation. In this talk, Brian Riedl shows that federal spending is expanding at an unprecedented rate and is scheduled to increase in the future. The result will be remarkably higher taxes for future generations of Americans. The cause? Expensive entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The solution? Making politically difficult decisions that may hurt some people in the short term, even as they help expand the economy and increase societal wealth in the long term. Brian Riedl says that the alternative to acting soon could be economic catastrophe.
