SS can be fixed. There is a $2.5 trillion surplus that will keep it solvent until 2037. The real problem is Medicare, which could also be fixed over the years.
But the real, real problem is our general general financial situation and that goes to all government programs. They have all grown rapidly in recent years. If the US economy does not become healthy again, with low real unemployment and adequate jobs to move people from government support to self-supporting employment, then you can forget it all.
I keep asking on FR what's to be done about the $950 billion spent annually now for welfare, medicaid, food stamps, EITC and other programs for able bodied citizens who don't work, or work in the lowest paying jobs.
And you can be sure that $950 billion for 2011 will grow beyond a cool trillion next year
. And, I know the government spent the SS surplus and continues to do so. But for now, the annual shortfall is around $40 billion. Not much compared to the trillion being spent now on all sorts of government support programs for people not working.
The "surplus" is in special-issue government bonds that will have to be redeemed out of the general fund.
In other words, either the Feds will have to borrow, starve another program of funds, or raise taxes.
The way that the politicians over the decades (starting with Democrats, continuing with Republicans) handled this, they convinced an entire generation to vote for a massive stealth tax increase on their children and grandchildren.
There is a $2.5 trillion surplus that will keep it solvent until 2037.
(When an entity - the government - owes itself money, that’s not an asset. You’ve been duped by the left.)