Cheers!
Posted on 05/13/2011 12:08:22 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Caught in the sluggish recovery from the last recession, Social Security and Medicare face an increasingly dismal fiscal future, the federal government reported Friday in its annual review of the two mammoth entitlement programs.
Medicare, which now provides health insurance to some 47 million elderly and disabled Americans, could begin running a deficit in 2024, five years earlier than projected last year.
And Social Security, which last year began paying out more in benefits than it collected in taxes, now faces insolvency in 2036, compared to 2037 in last year’s projections.
Over the years, the Social Security and Medicare trustees have produced widely varying assessments of the financial health of the two programs, as the nation’s economy has moved through periods of growth and stagnation.
But the latest estimates by the trustees are expected to intensify pressure on both parties in Washington to move forcefully to shore up the two programs.
"We should not wait for the trust funds to be exhausted to make the reforms necessary to protect our current and future retirees," said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who chairs the board of trustees.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
When I start getting upset over the insolvency of our government at every level, I take a swig and sing this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12cbF8FXadQ
I mean, it’s as ridiculous as ANY solution any CongressCritter suggests to “fix” things for us!
*Fingers In Ears* La-La-La-La-La!!
Does everyone understand that we’re screwed and have been for a very long time?
Exactly. This IS what is happening with these programs. It’s either not being investigated, or they know too damn well what’s going on with it and are allowing it.
It’s being raided pure and simple — by our politicians, and by illegals and newly minted immigrants and their gobs of elderly family members.
I’ll never forget — we had this homeless gentleman ...speaking some crazy assed arabic language ...he was SO crazy he was running around the unit writing on the walls with magic marker. Would sit down in the middle of the hall and take his clothes off, etc, etc. Well, docs decided to give this man A FULL BODY SCAN to try to diagnose him. Does anyone have any idea what that costs?? It’s in the hundreds of thousdans ...who paid? Medicaid of course ...he’s bum ..right off the boat, or the plane ...whatever. No one even knew his name.
I can tell you right now — no damn way we’d be qualifying for full body scans through TRICARE. Never in a hundred years.
Well for one thing, youll find many, many old-timers here who say they had no obligation to help their kids with college, marriage, or whatever financial tight spots they encountered. When SS finally crashes (and every other crackpot entitlement), you’ll see these same “teach the kids self-reliance!” folks come out of the woodwork and beg their kids for help. And many of their kids will refuse for one reason or another.
What comes around goes around. You dance with the Devil (Reid), you’ll get burned in the end.
Yep. My dad was like this. Never gave me a dime ..told me all the work would be good for me. He’s passed on now, thankfully. If he was still here, I’d give him a bed and a room, but that would be about it. I’d have to make him work for his keep.
Right now I just want to make sure they do in fact collapse under their own weight rather then allowing them to gobble up an even larger share of our protect just to stave off their inevitable downfall and pay for unmitigated wast.
Let theses Social programs fall! Don’t let them drag the rest of us down to hell with em...
Cheers!
And yet, we’ll get the usual angry posts here about how neither can be changed because people have “paid into” them for years and should get full benefits.
Yeah. Just like there is no inflation.
I swear, sometimes I feel as if I am living in the Soviet Union, listening to broadcasts about how quotas for new boots, tractors and coat buttons have been met.
“If your empty left pocket owes your empty right pocket $1000 dollars, your right pocket is still broke.”
Very well said! This should be on billboards with Obama and Bernanke’s pictures next to it.
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