(American Conservative) -- Capitol Hill Republicans spent much of the Christmas break rejoicing over the passage of tax reform. But when they return in 2018, they’ll face a thorny briar patch of other issues they’ll need to tackle. Many of these items should have been dealt with in 2017 but were put off with short-term patches. With these problems still looming and Donald Trump eager to follow up his tax overhaul with other successes, expect a busy congressional calendar in the year to come—though not as busy as it could be. Let’s begin with the one thing we can be sure Congress won’t deal with.
Autopilot spending: Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security
The government borrows money to keep Social Security running and spends nearly $7 million per minute, or roughly $50,000 every second. The United States has $20 trillion of public debt, or nearly $161,000 per taxpayer. The deficit is set to hit $1.5 trillion within a decade.
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