The article argues that recent executive overreach and politicization have severely undermined established norms of U.S. civil-military relations. To restore professional standards, the incoming Congress must actively exercise its oversight powers, moving beyond mere criticism to demanding transparency in defense policy and personnel decisions. Key reforms include enforcing meritocratic promotion processes, requiring documented justification for senior officer removals, and preventing the partisan use of the military. These actions are crucial for bolstering public trust and ensuring the military remains a nonpartisan instrument of civilian control.
Why the Congressional Budget Office’s Social Security Shortfall Looks Smaller
English Summary
CATO argues that the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) seemingly more optimistic projection of the Social Security shortfall is misleading, as the reduction is not based on improved demographics or finances. Instead, the smaller gap is primarily attributable to the CBO raising its assumed future interest rates, which lowers the present value of future liabilities. This discounting effect makes the long-term deficit appear less urgent today, even though the actual required future funding remains unchanged. Policymakers must therefore look beyond headline estimates and utilize independent modeling to accurately gauge the true scale of the financing problem, which still necessitates significant tax increases to close the gap.
中文摘要
CATO指出，國會預算辦公室（CBO）對於社會安全基金缺口的預測看似更樂觀，但具有誤導性，因為其所呈現的縮小並非基於人口結構或財政狀況的改善。相反地，較小的缺口主要歸因於CBO提高了假設的未來利率，這降低了未來負債的現值。這種折現效應使得長期赤字在當前看起來不那麼緊急，儘管實際所需的未來資金仍未改變。因此，政策制定者必須超越標題估計，利用獨立模型來準確評估資金問題的真實規模，這仍然需要大幅提高稅收才能彌補缺口。
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