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• n  right granted by law or contract (especially a right to benefits)
  entitlements make up the major part of the federal budget

• As daunting as the obstacles to entitlement reform are, the President is banking on a number of recent developments to allow him to succeed where his predecessors have failed.
• Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has told Obama in person that his party favors entitlement reform and would work for passage if both parties shared the risk.
• And out of the blue Bush is suddenly talking entitlement reform again, two years after his push to overhaul Social Security died.

News & Articles

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• Sen. Corker: 'Fiscal Fatigue' Has Set In
  Sen. Bob Corker, (R-TN), shares his views on why the government should get its fiscal house in order through entitlement and tax reform, privatizing intelligence gathering, and implementing GSE reform.
  June 11, 2013 - CNBC
• Boehner Slams Snowden, Wants Immigration Overhaul
  Speaker John A. Boehner ripped Edward Snowden, the leaker of secret National Security Agency programs, as a "traitor" in an interview on Tuesday morning in which he also reiterated his push for an immigration overhaul and entitlement cuts.
  June 11, 2013 - CQ Politics
• Uncle Sam's outsourcing tab: $517 billion
  Uncle Sam awarded more than $500 billion in outsourcing contracts in the most recent fiscal year, paying for everything from submarines to janitorial contracts. The spending flowing to outside businesses accounts for roughly one out of every three dollars of discretionary government spending, which is everything except for entitlement programs such as Social Security or interest on U.S. debt ...
  June 11, 2013 - KSAT San Antonio

Quotes

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• Ben Bernanke in New York Times
  The arithmetic is, unfortunately, quite clear,Mr. Bernanke said. "To avoid large and unsustainable budget deficits, the nation will ultimately have to choose among higher taxes, modifications to entitlement programs such as Social Security...
• Barack Obama in MiamiHerald.com
  Entitlement increases and tax cuts need to be paid for,Obama said Tuesday, as he invited dozens of conservative Democrats to the White House to discuss his approach. "They're not free, and borrowing to finance them is not a sustainable...
• Bill Richardson in CNN
  Well, I'm not going to get in the gutter like that,Richardson said. "And you know, that's typical of many of the people around Sen. Clinton. They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency."