“this is my starting point. What do you think?”
Doesn’t matter what you think, it will go nowhere.
It should be obvious to anyone in this forum who does think, that the problems of programs like Social Security, Medicare, etc. will NEVER be “fixed” until the system has collapsed and the payments literally stop being paid.
Then, and ONLY then, will there be the realization by both those who receive the benefits and by those who determine how they will be distributed (elected officials) that the system must be “fixed”.
And then, and ONLY then, will it be.
Even a week before “collapse day zero”, the politicians of both parties will still be conniving and concocting schemes to prop the old system up and keep it going just a little longer. It’s they way they work, it’s ingrained into their political consciousness, and they won’t confront reality until reality confronts them...
You may be correct; but if we can just bump up the borrowing limit this one more time...