I recall recent testimony from a Medicare trustee. It will actually default and end in 1223 because it is exclusively funded by its Trust Fund and that fund will be empty. The law does not allow borrowing money from elsewhere.
Dems want to tie retirees to a locked in failure.
Because SS is a ponzie scheme it will just pull from general revenue and increase debt.
OK, this is 2011, so we have 12 years during which we fix the medicare system by which we provide health care to the elderly. If we do run negative on SS benefits, we can fix that for, say the next 12 years by a combination of means-testing, slight raise in age to obtain benefits, raising maximum income subject to the payroll tax, and 1% or 2% hike to payroll tax. Then we do not get voted out of office by the hordes of furious voters for coming after peoples medicare and SS benefits, like it appears Paul Ryan wants to happen. Ergo, we clearly show how bloated the rest of the Federal Government really is and cut THAT spending, thus drastically downsizing the Federal Government and freeing the people.