Social Security funds are set to dry up by the year 2034. In an election cycle with a focus on foreign affairs, national security, and the economy and jobs, Social Security reform has largely remained off the radar. As a millennial paying into this program fully knowing I will never receive its benefits if the system continues its course, I decided to dig a little deeper into the candidates’ positions on this topic.

This election cycle, young voters are enamored with the concept of “free college.” That’s right, “free.” I am assuming those same students aspiring to higher education took a basic science class along the way and learned that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. The same principle applies to tuition. What you are not paying for, someone else is.

Today marks the 50th Anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, which were signed into law on July 30, 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson. These programs, along with Social Security, are collectively referred to as entitlement programs and are taking up a growing proportion of the annual budget. This problem is overshadowed by an even larger danger for Medicare and Social Security: their trust funds are about to dry up.

The Congressional Budget Office issued another dire warning last week on the ominous state of the Social Security, the social retirement and disability programs created by Congress in 1935 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal."

When the House of Representatives passed the farm bill earlier this year, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) hailed it as a accomplishment because, he said, it "maintains critical assistance for families in need and improves programs for producers while cutting the cost of government."

This week, I decided to research the Farm Bill to write a little bit about some of the “reforms” House Republicans who support the bill are so proud of. The CBO estimates savings of $35 billion over the next ten years (vs. the current baseline). The CBO is also notorious for underestimating costs, and it looks like this time won’t be any different. 

President Obama’s reelection triggered a ticking time bomb of fed up Americans. Across the country small businesses and large corporations alike are closing their doors or laying off hundreds of employees. The innovators and entrepreneurs of America have been weary of increasing government regulation for quite some time, now.

This Thursday, FreedomWorks will host the first field hearing for the newly-formed Tea Party Debt Commission in Salt Lake City. The hearing will take place at Noah’s meeting and conference center, 322 West 11000 South, South Jordan, UT, 84095.

On May 16, 2011, the US public debt once again reached the debt ceiling (the legal cap set by Congress for how much the United States is allowed to borrow). The United States’ debt now stands at around 14.3 trillion dollars.  A quick visit to usdebtclock.org shows that the United States now owes around $46,000 dollars per citizen and over $129,000 per taxpayer. Those are big numbers; numbers big enough to get many lawmakers on both side of the aisle talking about reducing the deficit.