A Huge Threat to the U.S. Budget Has Receded. And No One Is Sure Why.

Margot Sanger-Katz, Alicia Parlapiano and Josh Katz, The New York Times: “If Medicare spending had grown the way it had for much of its history, federal spending would have been $3.9 trillion higher since 2011, and deficits would have been more than a quarter larger, according to an Upshot analysis. The difference is more than could be saved by raising the eligibility age for Social Security or converting Medicaid into a block grant…. It’s so much money that almost no major legislation passed during this period comes close in scale.”