This came out before Commiecare was shoved down our throats!
Posted on 08/05/2010 9:31:11 AM PDT by blam
Geithner: The Entitlements Shortfall Is Coming Sooner Than You Think
Gus Lubin
Aug. 5, 2010, 11:54 AM
. Geithner's big report on entitlement programs makes it official. A long-term deficit arrives for Social Security in 2016 and for Medicare in 2017.
The new timeline is worse than last year's report, which predicted shortfalls in 2017 and 2019.
The report is light on details of how they would cover the shortfall. But as Timmy made clear early this week, new taxes are coming:
The drawdown of Social Security and HI Trust Fund reserves and the general revenue transfers into SMI will result in mounting pressure on the Federal budget. In fact, pressure is already evident. For the third consecutive year, a “Medicare funding warning” is being triggered, signaling that non-dedicated sources of revenues—primarily general revenues— will soon account for more than 45 percent of Medicare’s outlays. A Presidential proposal will be needed in response to the latest warning.
Actually, the Social Security was already running a deficit during the financial crisis. The program will hit positive for a few years and then, thanks to demographic issues, go red for the rest of your lifetime.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
The drawdown of Social Security and HI Trust Fund reserves
sigh......
Go get it while you can.
I got a call from an alleged market research firm doing work for the Treasury on when folks of a certain age planned to start tapping into SS. I told them I don’t support Little Timmy in ANYTHING he wants - end of discussion.
You are joking right? There is no trust fund.
That’s why I’m sighing. They are still posturing as if there is a fund.
GWB didn’t get any support from his own party on SSI reform.
You got that right. We’ve gotta fix that problem, too. But the fury of the Demon-rats was the biggest obstacle.
Yes. The republicans were terrified about getting demagogued by the democrats. Can’t afford timidity anymore.
There are no reserves. SS and HI (Medicare Part A) are pay as you go systems. Any “surplus” is put into the General Fund and Treasury deposits IOUs in the form of non-market T-bills into the trust funds, which represent an unfunded liability.
Laugh at Alex Jones and company all you want, they have laid out this blueprint.
The long term ss deficit may be coming in 2016, but the short term ss deficit is already here and there is no prospect that it will go away between now and 2016.
Let’s see if I’ve got it right.
There is no money in the trust fund, only a bunch of IOUs from the U.S. Gov’t, which has been borrowing from the trust fund for decades. Now, the Gov’t is running a deficit, so it’s selling Treasury bonds to make up for the money it’s spending that it doesn’t have. In order to keep interest rates low on the Treasury bonds, the Federal Reserve has been buying the T-Bonds. The Fed Reserve is actually broke itself, and has gotten huge infusions of cash from the Fed Gov’t, which means the Fed Gov’t is actually financing the deficit by buying the T-bonds with it’s own money which it doesn’t have.
Well, I feel better. I’m sure the trust fund will be perfectly safe.
Good point.
Think of this way: You fill a bucket at the deep end of the pool, then go to the shallow end and pour in the water to make the shallow end deeper.....or
You’re drunk, and you drink more to get sober....or
You’re drilling holes in the bottom of the boat to let the water out quicker.
The Obama White House must adore these ideas.
This came out before Commiecare was shoved down our throats!
“Timmy made clear early this week, new taxes are coming”
Oh...like those pesky taxes you can’t figure out how to pay?
So the Republican congressmen who voted against this socialist boondoggle were right in saying that Social Security would go broke. Someone should publish their names and recognize them for their foresight and good judgment.
We certainly do not owe Democrats a Social Security bailout for their ponzi scheme, designed to buy the votes of the elderly with money taken from their children and grandchildren.
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