JAMES CAPRETTA Journalist Profile

Articles

Third Annual Health Solutions Summit: Improving Medicare’s Sustainability

2 weeks ago | aei.org | JAMES CAPRETTA |Josh Gordon |Leslie Gordon |Lawson Mansell

AEI Senior Fellow James C. Capretta took part in the Third Annual Health Solutions Summit hosted by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget to discuss the Medicare program and its sustainability. As Medicare faces shortened window for solving its solvency problems, policymakers are looking towards solutions. Along with a panel of experts, James Capretta discussed not only which policies could alleviate the fiscal deterioration, but could why it vital that the problem be solved.
The “Current Policy” Baseline Is a Destructive Gimmick

4 weeks ago | aei.org | JAMES CAPRETTA |Julia Cataneo

The temptation to bend and break inexpedient rules and norms is ever-present in politics, but the current leaders of the GOP, starting with the president but extending well into Congress, seem to be indulging the impulse with frequency and gusto rather than resignation. The emerging plan to distort how the budget baseline is calculated when assessing the GOP’s tax and spending agenda is an especially glaring and damaging example of this pattern.
Budgeting for Fiscal Sanity – James C. Capretta

1 month ago | lawliberty.org | JAMES CAPRETTA |Richard Samuelson |Helen Dale |Thomas Powers

If the 118th Congress is remembered at all, it will likely be for its ineffectiveness and dysfunction, which persisted until the merciful end. In its last days, as it rushed for the exits, it put off, once again, final decisions on federal agency budgets until at least mid-March (nearly six months into the current fiscal year). This delay included military spending, which has obvious security consequences.
Appropriations and the Rule of Law

2 months ago | aei.org | JAMES CAPRETTA |Julia Cataneo

The Trump administration has targeted multiple federal agencies for substantial downsizing and budget cuts, which the media is prone to describe as having immediate and permanent effects. The implication is that the president is driving his agenda through Washington and nothing is going to stand in his way. But, in fact, nothing much of permanence has happened yet, or is likely to in the coming weeks.
The Budget Baseline as Trump 2.0 Begins

Jan 23, 2025 | aei.org | JAMES CAPRETTA |Julia Cataneo

A new forecast from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reveals the scale of the fiscal challenge that the second Trump administration has inherited from its predecessors, including Trump 1.0 and the Biden administration. Amid much talk about the problem, there is not yet an identifiable path for reversing the deterioration. Indeed, based on the policies surfaced to this point by the president and his allies, even more rapid borrowing looks more likely than sustained fiscal consolidation.
Reconciling More Spending on Defense with Long-Term Fiscal Stability

Jan 14, 2025 | aei.org | JAMES CAPRETTA

James Capretta’s chapter from Affording Defense: Investing in American Strength to Confront a More Dangerous World (American Enterprise Institute,2025),edited by Mackenzie Eaglen. To download this and additional chapters, please visit: www.aei.org/affording-defense/ A disruptive national election in the United States has opened the door to a new course for fiscal and defense policy.
National Health Expenditures in 2023 and the Implications for Further Reform

Jan 10, 2025 | aei.org | JAMES CAPRETTA |Julia Cataneo

In December, analysts at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published the agency’s annual assessment of national health expenditures, in this case covering calendar year 2023. There is modest good news in the results but also plenty to suggest that additional cost-disciplining reforms are needed. The main takeaway is that annual national health expenditures (NHE), relative to the size of the US economy, have been relatively stable for some time now.
Creating Incentives for Efficient Government

Nov 21, 2024 | aei.org | JAMES CAPRETTA |Zichu Yang

The incoming Trump administration’s high-profile Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, plans to rely on existing executive authorities, real or imagined, to slash regulations, federal personnel, and agency spending with no need to gain approval first from Congress. It is a questionable predicate, and one which guarantees formidable political and judicial opposition. There is an alternative way of thinking about the problem.
Social Security and Medicare Need New Autopilot Settings

Nov 19, 2024 | aei.org | JAMES CAPRETTA

Social Security and Medicare run based on permanent provisions that annually update key tax and spending parameters but without regard to the status of their trust funds. Consequently, as the U.S. population ages and health care costs rise more rapidly than household incomes, both programs are expected to run short of needed resources to pay full benefits.
A Health Care Fix With a High Ceiling

Nov 8, 2024 | aei.org | JAMES CAPRETTA |Zichu Yang

With the election (mostly) settled, attention now turns to what it might mean for important corners of federal policy. In health care, the possibilities are not well defined because the campaign ruled very little out, or in. What is clear is that the incoming administration should not repeat the mistake of 2017, which was to promise sweeping change without having a plan to offer to Congress.