Posted on 05/24/2009 6:29:19 PM PDT by Lorianne
When the trustees of Social Security and Medicare recently reported on the economic outlook for these programs, the news coverage was universally glum. The recession had made everything worse. Social Security, Medicare face insolvency sooner, headlined The Wall Street Journal. Actually, these reports were good news. Better would have been Social Security, Medicare risk bankruptcy in 2010.
It's increasingly obvious that Congress and the president (regardless of which party is in power) will deal with the political stink bomb of an aging society only if forced. And the most plausible means of compulsion would be for Social Security and Medicare to go bankrupt: trust funds run dry; promised benefits exceed dedicated payroll taxes. The sooner this happens, the better.
That the programs will ultimately go bankrupt is clear from the trustees' reports. On pages 201 and 202 of the Medicare report, you will find the conclusive arithmetic: over the next 75 years, Social Security and Medicare will cost an estimated $103.2 trillion, while dedicated taxes and premiums will total only $57.4 trillion. The gap is $45.8 trillion. (All figures are expressed in "present value," a fancy term for "today's dollars.")
The Medicare actuaries then dryly note what would happen once the trust funds for Social Security and Medicare's hospital insurance program are depleted: "No provision exists under current law to address the projected [Medicare] and [Social Security] financial imbalances
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
These dates showing when the Medicare and Social Security “trust funds” run out are completely BOGUS!
It is not possible for the government to “lend” itself money any more than it is possible for any individual or any business to “lend” itself money.
The “Trust Funds” are simply a convenient accounting technique which converts “excess” contributions to the “trust funds” into General Revenue!
It is NOT POSSIBLE for the government to establish any “savings account” if the government is simply “investing” in its own securities.
Looks like Big Government is going to need a private-sector funded bail out.
Just tax the rich, plus print mo money, mo money, mo money.
The trust funds are dry. They are the equivalent of a drunk putting $20 every week into the piggy bank for his kids' college education, then immediately taking the $20 bill back out to spend on beer and replacing it with an "I Owe Me". The piggy bank is not an asset which the kids can bring to the college bursars office and expect to pay for classes. Those "IOMe"s are only a promise to take future pay and put it back in the pig. Similary, the Medicare and SS trust funds are only promises to raise taxes in the future to pay for those bonds - which would have been exactly the same thing which would need to happen if the government had never set up the trust funds.
Aren't those years 2015 and 2016?
Let Them Go Bankrupt, Soon [Social Security and Medicare]
_________________________________________
Unfortunately, the money will be taken from the veterans if that happens...
We haz priorities...
1. Welfare Mom’s and others...
2. Illegal aliens
3.
4.
100 or so. Veterans..
Some FReepers claim they have some plumbium investments they're willing to contribute.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Too bad we’ve aborted a large segment of potential contributors since 1973.
Even that won't work unless the government lies about the inflation rate and the cost of living increases for SS and the higher bills from doctors for Medicare to cut their payments. Unlike the rest of the debt which is in fixed dollar amounts (at least until people are only willing to lend and be repaid in Euros/Swiss Francs/the relatively stable Zimbabwe Dollar), SS and Medicare are promises for a certain level of services and payment relative to workers' pay at that time. If we inflate the currency, the $1500 monthly SS payment might go up to $15,000; $15,000,000 or $15,000,000,000 depending on how hyper the hyperinflation is.
Hyperinflation would wipe away the "value" of the SS trust fund, but as I said before the SS trust fund doesn't have any real value now anyway.
Yup. The Pols know Veterans won’t riot.
At the end of the road, eligibility ages will rise, benefits will be means tested, and [public financed] care WILL be rationed. This might not be a bad thing—in any case, we will have no choice. Unfortunately, illegals will continue to get care, perhaps even ahead of citizens.
There is a fairly straight forward solution to the Soc Sec and Medicare Trust Fund problems. It is called euthanasia and I would not be at all surprised if somewhere in the fairly near future we set a maximum age limit, such as 70 whereupon those who reach that age will be put down. This would solve the problem of potential bankruptcy of the trust funds.
Means testing will be instituted for any SS benefits.
The cap on SS taxes will be removed, so people will pay SS taxes on what ever amount of money they make.
SS and Medicare/Medicaid tax rates will go up by 25%
Medicare will also be means tested with the “rich” excluded from any benefits.
If universal health care is enacted, then Medicare/Medicaid will be rolled into the UHC law and a new UHC payroll tax will emerge, but the old SS and Medicare/Medicaid payroll taxes will not be eliminated.
Zero may even be so bold as to try for a wealth tax.
I can easily see a combined fed/state/local tax on the producers of this country exceed 70% by the end of zero's 2nd term.
The litany of secession:
If a state or states causes you to live in socialism, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to remain a republic maimed and crippled than to stay a collective whole and to be thrown into eternal Bolshevik fire.
And the federal government causes you to sin, secede from it, peacefully hopefully, but secede just the same. It is better for you to enter into liberty a smaller sovereign state than as part of a socialist empire to be thrown into fiery collective hell
The original Mathew 18:8
If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into fiery Gehenna.
Exactly. There is a reason why the SSTF is included in the national debt under “Intragovernmental holdings.” It is an unfunded liability. In 1950 there were 16 workers for every retiree; today there are 3.3, and in 2030, there will be two workers for every retiree. And by 2030, one in 5 in this country will be 65 or older.
I’ve got a brilliant idea - hey Federal Government - write me a check for every penny I have ever paid in to Social (in)Security and every penny contributed by my employers over the years, let me invest it, tax-free, and take care of my own retirement days.
Personally, while I know I can’t rely on SS to take care of me, I have been paying into SS and Medicare for around 24 years - I would really prefer to get my money back NOW - and invest it how I see fit. I think, regardless of the markets, that I could do better than to have it vanish before I am ready to “retire”...
Social Security was a bad idea (with seemingly good intentions) from the beginning - and has become nothing more than a slush fund for the Feds to spend as they see fit and write worthless “IOU’s” and stick them in AlGore’s “Lockbox”... Give me my money back and stick your lockbox where the...errr... I will be civil enough to stop right there.
Love the Stars and Bars!
How about a scalp reward?
Bring in an old gray scalp and we (your loving government) give you $1,000.
Cowboys and Injuns day at the local nursing home.
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