reporting.
Posted on 05/01/2006 12:30:33 PM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan
WASHINGTON - The trust fund for Social Security will be depleted in 2040, and Medicare will exhaust its trust fund reserves just 12 years from now, trustees for the programs said Monday.
Their annual report showed deterioration in the financial condition of both of the government's two largest benefit programs.
A year ago, the depletion of the Social Security trust fund had been projected to occur in 2041 and the Medicare hospital insurance fund in 2020.
The trustees, who include the head of the Social Security Administration and three members of President Bush's Cabinet, painted a sober assessment of the health of the two programs in advance of the looming retirements of 78 million baby boomers.
"We do not believe the currently projected long-run growth rates of Social Security or Medicare are sustainable under current financing arrangements," the trustees said in this year's report.
Bush's efforts last year to overhaul Social Security went nowhere in Congress. Even members of his own party refused to support the benefit cuts that would have accompanied the establishment of private accounts for younger workers.
Ping!!
Apologies to anyone who was received a ping and didn't want it.. :)
And to pay for it, we can just "raise taxes on the rich." After all, their money will never run out, so we can tax them at 100% and pay off everyone's Social Security and Medicare benefits!
Let's create a new entitlement program while we're at it. We can put Paul Krugman in charge.
Chickens are coming home to roost.
reporting.
what bleeping trust fund?
I guess those treasury bills are not such a good investment afterall.
Adding 11 million illegal aliens to the ranks of our citizenry is not going to help this situation. If you lose money on each retiree, you don't make it up on volume--particularly when the retirees in question don't pay much in taxes, but get sweetened benefits because they are poor.
I never heard a Ponzi scheme called "trust fund" before.
Cowards.
Ken Lay is a better bookkeeper.
"In 1916 an Italian immigrant named Charles Ponzi created an investment fund that paid large dividends without making any investments. Money from new investors was transferred to old investors while the new investors received money from newer investors yet. The system had flexibility and boldness and worked as long as an ever-expanding pool of suckers could be found. Charles Ponzi made a profit on this, and so does the U.S. Government." - P. J. O'Rourke, on the subject of Social Security.
That can't be right...the dummocRATs said GWB's attempt to do something about it last year was just an empty scare tactic.(sarc)
what bleeping trust fund?
-----
This is the pile of worthless, never-to-be-paid IOUs, that the great government has created by stealing the SS trust fund (I think one actually existed) to buy votes. SS is now a bona fide TAX because the government spends EVERY cent they take from America in SS TAXES. Nothing is saved. But our pols, all of them, still think they have the public duped and dumbed-down enough to swallow that swill. Oh, don't worry - they will find a way to take more of the publics' wealth so they can keep spending...
“The Federal budget meaning of the term "trust" differs significantly from the private sector usage...the Federal Government owns the assets and earnings of most Federal trust funds, and it can unilaterally raise or lower future trust fund collections and payments, or change the purpose for which the collections are used. “ (Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2000 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1999), p. 335.)Even more important, the Social Security trust funds are only “invested” in a special type of Treasury bond that can only be issued to and redeemed by the Social Security Administration. As the Congressional Research Service noted:
"When the government issues a bond to one of its own accounts, it hasn't purchased anything or established a claim against another entity or person. It is simply creating a form of IOU from one of its accounts to another." (David Koitz, "Social Security and the Federal Budget: What Does Social Security's Being Off-Budget Mean?" Congressional Research Service, May 5, 1998.)As a result:
“These [Trust Fund] balances are available to finance future benefit payments and other trust fund expenditures--but only in a bookkeeping sense. These funds are not set up to be pension funds, like the funds of private pension plans. They do not consist of real economic assets that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits. Instead, they are claims on the Treasury, that, when redeemed, will have to be financed by raising taxes, borrowing from the public, or reducing benefits or other expenditures. The existence of large trust fund balances, therefore, does not, by itself, make it easier for the government to pay benefits.” [Italics added] (Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2000 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1999), p. 337.)In short, the Social Security trust funds are really only an accounting mechanism. They show how much the government has borrowed from Social Security (see below for details), but do not provide any way to finance future benefits. --The Heritage Foundation, Social Security Basics
"Superficially, Social Security appears to be just a government pension plan for the elderly. Rather, it is a pyramid or Ponsi scheme. It is not based on sound principles of insurance. Private insurance companies invest the premiums of their customers in stocks and bonds and other income-producing assets. Real wealth is created. Later, the earnings from that wealth is used to pay annuities or pensions. But Social Security is not a savings-and-investment program. Social Security taxes (premiums?) create no wealth. The payroll taxes are not invested, but are used to pay current retirees and survivors under the program. It's called a pay-as-you-go system. Some call it an intergenerational income-transfer program. It is indeed!" --Dr. Judd W. Patton
Well now...sure didn't make sense to add prescription drugs as another entitlement did it? Keep in mind many illegals tap into this too...I'm at my wit's end with the upside down world.
Very interesting. I always wondered why the SSA kept records on peoples earnings. Radio host adam carolla would get his every year and then talk about how he went from making 4000 in one year to making 1.5 million two years later.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.