The economic costs and risks posed by large deficits have been frequently discussed and I will not repeat those points today. Instead, I will only observe that, among the possible effects, increases in the deficit (and, as a result, in the national debt) would shift the burden of paying for government spending from the present to the future.
Consequently, the choices that fiscal policy makers make with respect to these programs will be a crucial determinant of the way the economic burden of an aging population is distributed between the current generation and the generations that will follow.