2. The entitlements gap-or the difference between the present value of our future Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid promises and that of the money we'll have to pay for them-was $46 trillion last winter.
The so-called entitlement gap was what Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn).
The ORR said it would closely monitor train companies to ensure the improvements were delivered, including working with watchdog Transport Focus on a compensation survey of 8,000 passengers to establish the depth of the gap between entitlements and actual payouts.
Obama proposes to address the "actuarial gap" in entitlement programs - actuarial gap being a term congenial to if not lifted straight from Niall Ferguson's analysis of generational accounting - in part by raising the cap on payroll taxes, but in part by creating incentives for personal retirement accounts, fostering, if you'll pardon the term, an ownership society.
Commission members say they are more focused on their other charge to "meaningfully improve the long-run fiscal outlook," by limiting the growth of entitlement programs and closing the gap between spending and taxes.
"Universal Credit has built a digital barrier that effectively obstructs many individuals' access to their entitlements," he warns, pointing to big gaps in digital skills and literacy for those on low incomes and also detailing how civil society has been forced into a lifeline support role — despite its own austerity-enforced budget constraints.
MAKING HIGHER EDUCATION GREAT AGAIN Bridging the opportunity gap cannot become synonymous with entitlement.
These meetings will involve participatory discussions to sensitise members to issues related to inequity and exclusion from health and nutrition services and entitlements, as well as identifying and addressing gaps in health and nutrition services.
The present value of the gap between America's long-term entitlement promises and its expected tax revenues looks to be more than $70 trillion.
And I've argued before that the changing demographic composition of the United States is likely to make debates over taxes and entitlements more polarizing than they otherwise would be, by making the old-young gap a white-brown gap as well.
I'm simply saying that there is a gap that has opened up between the promises and entitlements and the actual pace of growth, and closing that gap is going to be a challenge.
