OK. Let's start with a 25% across the board cut tomorrow for both SS and Medicare...the add 5% cuts every year for the next five years.
That's probably the best solution that we could get, however, I could think of a more just solution.
1.) Stop FICA collection.
2.)Cash everybody out based on real value and not the ponzi scheme value.
3.)Make everyone, across the board, pay for the ponzi scheme shortfall.
It will never happen of course. But anything else is a Marxist redistribution of wealth.
I would vote for that. According to current projections, Social Security taxes will fund only about 75% of legislated benefits about 2040 (when the phantom "trust fund" is exhausted). So, that would immediately put it on an actuarially sound footing.
However, that cut really has to be "across-the-board". Everyone gets the same reduction, with no exceptions.
Since that's politically impossible, I'll counter with something like 2% per year, for the next 50 years. that means that the people starting in the workforce today will not receive any Social Security benefits, and they will know it.
Replace it with a mandatory participation in a private retirement plan.
When the benefits drop low enough that FICA and Medicare taxes result in a surplus, gradually reduce the tax rates until they disappear altogether.
This is a far better solution than targeting a group of voters that don't have enough political power to stop it. When that turns out to be inadequate, who is going to be next?