Posted on 05/09/2006 6:49:54 PM PDT by elephantrepublican
SHEER COINCIDENCE: Last Monday, the Social Security and Medicare trustees released their annual depressing report. On Tuesday, congressional negotiators handed President Bush a "victory" -- his assessment -- in agreeing to extend his capital gains and dividend tax cuts. Mr. Bush and his fellow tax-cuts-above-all proponents would like you to believe that the two events are unrelated. But taken together they underscore the terrible fiscal predicament that Mr. Bush has chosen to bequeath to his successor.
According to the new estimates, the Social Security trust fund will be depleted in 2040, one year closer than last year's projection, while Medicare's will run out in 2018 -- two years sooner than last year's projection and 12 years earlier than estimated when Mr. Bush took office. These dates may still sound remote, but the problem is more imminent than the customary focus on insolvency suggests. Far earlier than the insolvency date, the programs will be spending more than they take in, in payroll taxes in the case of Social Security, in payroll taxes and premiums in the case of some parts of Medicare. Because of higher-than-anticipated hospital costs, the price of Medicare hospital benefits will exceed tax collections and other dedicated revenue this year -- a situation that will persist and worsen rapidly after 2010. And every year of procrastination makes the eventual solution more painful....
The chutzpah here is amazing. One year ago the libs were screaming that SS was just fine and that Bush's alarms regardindg the solvency of the program were just political fear mongering. This is the reason they trashed his proposals to reform the system. Now that they succeeded they are screaming that the system is insolvent and it's due to Bush's inattention to the issue. Boy, this is really through-the-looking-glass, bizarro world stuff. No wonder major urban newspaper circulation is falling like a rock.
..you may be right.
Think there's a hairball coming.
You are also assuming that most will live until they are 80 or so. Won't happen, so the boom will fizzle, and they will still want to take 100% of my income (for the good of the rest...)
Newbi doobie dooooooo,
You're smoking hashish.....
I didn't realize Joe Biden was joining us here on FR!! Well, Mr Biden, here comes your reward!
I guess you were out to lunch or recess when this was discussed in your economics class. Let's consider some facts. (You know what facts are, they are those pesky truths that crop up when you make an erroneous statement, and make you look like the fool you are...)
Fact 1: Reagan cut taxes. He dropped the top rate from 78% to 28%. Revenues INCREASED at a rate of over 12%/year, almost DOUBLING in the 8 years he was in office. The deficit increased because Congress increased spending by 19%/year.
Fact 2: Since the Bush tax cuts, not only has the economy taken off, with record unemployment, but budget deficit forecasts have been revised DOWNWARD twice already (that I am aware of), and the Treasury is receiving record revenues. All from TAX CUTS!!!!
Suspending the tax cuts, that are fueling our economy, would be the GROSSEST form of fiscal incompetence. BTW, Bush TRIED to fix Social Security, but the DIMS and the AARP wouldn't even consider it....
BURN, TROLL, BURN!!!!!
Reasoning with a die-hard leftist is like talking to a child who sticks their fingers in their ears and screams "La La La" at you. I cite Rosie O'Donnell as "exhibit A" with Cindy Sheehan as "exhibit B"
I mean, just look at the left and their "anti-war" protests.
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