Posted on 06/19/2012 4:29:17 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
For years, politicians and retirees could safely ignore the crisis facing America's Social Security system. The problems lay in a distant, hazy future, far beyond the next Election Day and the next round of golf. That is now changing; the ground is starting to shake. The first of America's 78 million baby boomers are turning 66, which means they're eligible for full Social Security benefits. Last year, this same group began to qualify for Medicare, whose enrollment age is 65. A goodly number of boomers have been receiving reduced Social Security benefits since 2008, when the oldest turned 62. Nearly a third of all Americans turning 62 in 2010 opted for early Social Security.
In short, the future has arrived, and it doesn't look pretty. The boomers in their 60s and the legions after them will put pressure on federal programs that support the elderly for years to come, according to projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The surge will fuel a process that eventually renders these programs too expensive to sustain. More ominously, the federal budget's burden of eldercare will get heavier, not lighter, even after the boomers leave the scene completely.
As the chart below illustrates, the costs of eldercare are rising faster than the growth of gross domestic product. The Social Security and Medicare parts alone, at 8.5% of GDP last year, will nearly double their share in 50 years, and keep rising from there. Add to Social Security and Medicare all other health-care entitlements, including Medicaid and "Obamacare," and federal revenues as we know them get nearly swallowed up as soon as 2035.
Unless, of course, radical steps are taken.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.barrons.com ...
Don’t worry, that’s what the death panels are for. Kill off the baby boomer generation to save SS and medicare.
Thousands of Baby Boomers, caught by the recession have had to take social security early. Rather than go in to poverty, many are taking Social Security now and are straining the system badly.
Not only this, but veterans, shell shocked and returning from the war are finding out that there service does not guarantee them a job anymore. These are applying and getting social security disability thus imposing even a bigger burden on an already over-strained system.
No, the projections to when the social security system will be bust is way off. The problems are already here and banging on the door!
That which can’t be paid, won’t be paid. The Social Security/Medicare dirge has been playing in the back ground for decades. Maybe it’s finally time to face the music.
Yep, no use spending resources on someone who has no productive life left.
This is what you get when you view humans as an accident of time and chance.
It is why I plan to get SS at 62.
The only real solution for this Socialist Security, is to return retirement plans to the private sector and sunset the people currently in the system, allowing them to collect but allowing no new inductees.
Yep...seriously considering the same thing.
“moovova1951”
isn't “eldercare” (and why aren't they calling it MEDICARE?)
only single payer socialized medicine?
Did not MEDICARE folks pay for most of their lives and continue to pay insurance premiums for a govt backed medical care program?
Isn't govt paid medical care what liberals call a “right”?
Isn't that what “obamacare” is supposed to be... govt paid medical care for every American?
So why point out that govt backed medical care for those aged 60 and above is a budget buster? What about the planned govt backed medical care for those under 60?
Hey Barrons! What’s with the “...will drain...”?
They are buying groceries with a credit card!!!!!!!
You are right. I have paid SS since I was 16 years old. Did my stint in the military, and had my money stolen from my checks every payday for over forty years, because the government could take care of my money better than I. Imagine what that would have accumulated in interest if just placed in a simple savings account.
It is not a handout, they owe me. Years of left wingers have caused this, GW warned them, but was put down.
All these idiots want to vote for these morons, well, give me my money back, and leave me alone.
Yea, I feel sorry for my grandkids and sons & daughters, but until it starts crashing down around them “bigtime” it will not be taken care of.
Of course, the left-wing solution is to kill off the old people, except them.
Blessings, Bobo
Yea, I forget the idiot from CO that suggested that. Isn’t he of the age to face the death panel?
He is way older than me.
Wonder if he would like to subject himself to that. Nah, rats never subject themselves to their own laws and beliefs.
They only apply to the “unwashed masses”.
The obamanation will probably just sign an executive order. The law be damned.
Blessings, Bobo
thank you both
and then, you get a bankrupt company after 27 yrs of work....
what the HELL are people supposed to do?.....the private economy has been effectively destroyed yet all these taxes have been paid for decades...
damn right we're expecting something when we hit 62...
one approach would be to index SS....make sure everyone gets everything they paid in, then index it to other pensions, including govt pensions...no more double or triple dipping....
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