President Obama recently endorsed the idea of expanding Social Security benefits. However, a broad-based benefits expansion similar to one proposed by Bernie Sanders is getting ahead of fiscal realities. The system is underfunded and benefits are already scheduled to grow substantially more generous. Lawmakers should ensure that the system can pay for currently promised benefits before making bigger promises.

Debt would rise from from today’s level under the plans of each of the three remaining presidential candidates – Secretary Clinton, Senator Sanders, and Donald Trump – though by different amounts.

Under Secretary Clinton, we estimate debt would rise to 86 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2026 – roughly in line with current law projections. Under Senator Sanders, we estimate debt would rise to 154 percent of GDP. Finally, under Donald Trump, debt would rise to 129 percent of GDP.

We've updated our analysis of Bernie Sanders' budget plans, estimating that they would now add almost $19 trillion to the already unsustainable national debt. The total increased to incorporate the findings of two new independent estimates of Senator Sanders’s “Medicare for All” plan that find – consistent with our previous “high health cost estimate” – that his plan would cost at least twice as much as the campaign’s estimate.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has proposed numerous new policies that would increase spending and expand tax breaks along with other policies that would increase taxes and reduce certain spending.  We estimate that Secretary Clinton’s proposals would cost $1.80 trillion over a decade with interest, and they would be nearly fully paid for with $1.60 trillion of offsets – primarily from taxes on high earners.