Money Wise

From David Wessel, Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget - - out July 31.

About $1 of every $4 the federal government spends goes to health care today. That is rising inexorably.

In 1981, spending on Medicare for the elderly and disabled and Medicaid for the poor accounted for 9.5% of federal outlays besides interest. By 2011, the two programs were consuming nearly 25%. In 2021, if current policies remain in place, government spending on health care will consume 33%, according to the Congressional Budget Office, even if the Affordable Care Act survives Republican attacks. The Medicare prescription-drug benefit alone will cost the government more over time than the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The war spending will end someday; the drug benefit is permanent.