Posted on 06/06/2018 6:29:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Social Security will spend more than it collects this year, the program’s trustees said Tuesday, marking the first time in more than 35 years that it will run an annual deficit as it slides toward insolvency by 2034.
Medicare’s main trust fund is in even worse shape, scheduled to hit insolvency in 2026 — three years earlier than last year’s estimate, the trustees said.
The twin warnings add even more pressure to a budget already strained by last year’s tax cuts and this year’s deal to boost spending on defense and basic domestic needs, leaving few bright spots in the federal fiscal picture.
The news also produced the usual finger-pointing among Democrats and Republicans, but budget watchdogs said the news was so grim that it should cut through the bipartisan bickering.
“It would be a nice change if this year Congress and the president actually took these warnings seriously enough to do something,” said Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition.
Social Security has been struggling for years and turned cash-negative this decade, meaning the government paid out more in benefits each year than it collected from the payroll tax.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
2034? You mean, I’ll have time to sidle up to the trough, too? Yay.
The problem is, today’s reality is that MOST people, once elderly, are effectively poor. There is just not enough money, whether it comes from the gov’t, or private (charity) sources, to take care of all the “poor” elderly, particularly given their extended lifespans (the cost of which extension is a big part of the problem.) My parents are a good example. My Dad was a senior professor, with a consulting business on the side. He worked like hell, and made very good money — as he neared retirement he & Mom (a homemaker who had worked some in earlier years) were probably about double US median family income. Plus Dad had good investments, and a very good pension after retirement. Medicare and a fairly good long term care insurance plan covered many of his costs when he became unable to care for himself (and Mom could not help.) My wife did as much as we could, in addition.
Well, guess what, it was not enough, or, perhaps I should say, it is still not enough. Dad is gone now, but most of his resources were exhausted in his care. (He never did go on Medicaid.) Mom’s care is now burning up what’s left, including loans from me I really can’t afford to make, but hope to be repaid when her house is sold. Assuming she does not decline into nursing care this year, I expect that her (and our) resources will run out in a year or so, leaving her children absolutely nothing. Then she will go on Medicaid (or in your proposal, “charity”), but, the costs have to be paid by someone. Not even counting her medical expenses, just her sitters alone (a “steal” at $10 an hour), will cost $10 x 24 x 365 = $87,600.00 / year. Her total expenses (including those covered by Medicare & other insurance) have to be at least that much, again. Who can afford this into their mid-to-late 80’s or more? What society can? That especially since, as Mom declines, her care will get even more expensive.
TANSTAAFL!
If there is a viable solution, I sure as heck do not see it.
Oops, that’s “my wife and I did as much...”!!!
moo: At least you paid into it. My grandfathers paid in quite a bit I suppose, but grandmothers not a cent, but still got their SS money. I suppose it all evens out in the end. I’ll pay out - but not receive a cent.
Please, no.
They quote people complaining about Trump and DACA and how that is causing more “Hispanic workers” to leave and not pay into the fund and they also try to hint that Trump’s tax cuts are harming the fund also by taking in less money. The article mentions Trump and seemingly blames him for much of the ills with Social Security.
Hmmmmm.....wonder if this was really written by Lyin Paul Ryan and his BFF SanFranNan.
How much money goes down the drain for all the illegals, their kids being born in our hospitals and getting citizenship so they can claim all the benefits, their ER visits, their school breakfasts and lunches, people actually having to go to court and suing the government to get Disability benefits and why are there such things as disability lawyers, all the benefits that go to refugees and asylum seakers, all the foreign aid to countries that hate us, tuition and education grants for those here illegally
I would think that if most, if not all, of that were dealt with and there actually was a SS Fund, then this problem could/would be fixed.
And then there’s the $21 trillion in unauthorized military spending...
Who knows??
And this is news how given we have long known that Social Security and Medicare were long insolvent and imploding?!?
More people are working, that will help the Social Security trust fund; the Baby Boom starts to turn 80 in 2026, the tail end of the Baby Boom turns 80 in 2040, by which time circa half of the Baby Boom will be, ahem, off the Social Security and Medicare rolls. And REPEALING OBAMACARE will probably take care of the problem with Medicare. Thanks SeekAndFind.
“You could raise the ‘cap’ and have the more wealthy put more into it, which would infuriate them because it’s a waste of money. You could raise the retirement age, but get lots of people mad. You could change the cost of living measure. You could have a ‘means test’ which is what Trump has talked about. You could even use the estate tax business to resolve this (really bad idea).”
Raising the cap And using the means test just increases socialism. The people paying in the most are already not going to get all of their money back. They are just subsidizing the lower earners who get many times what they have paid in.
My husband is 52. He was thinking of retiring next year But he has always said that he wants to “max out his Social Security”.. I got the Social Security calculations from their website, the endpoints for the three tiers, which changes each year.
If he were to continue working to 67 paying in at the same rate as this year increased by inflation, He would pay in about a quarter million dollars If you include his employers portion. And how much of that would be get back? At the most, about 35 thousand. And then he would have to live to 100.
Socialism at its finest.
The people that reach the top tier only get credit for 15% of what they pay in. Also, they only use the top 35 years worth of earnings. So the longer you pay in the earnings that you made at the beginning of your career don’t count anymore. All this makes those that work the hardest and the longest get screwed the most. As is typical with an a socialist system.
He will be quitting work next year and we will be done paying in to a failing system.
the lock box?
“It’s not your money, nor was it ever, because they stole it from the vast majority of people (except the self-employed) before they even saw it. ”
?? The self-employed pay in at double the rate, because they don’t have an employer paying half of it.
Right. What I was saying was that most people never even see the money. The self-employed do, because they have to write the check for both halves. I probably could have been more clear.
“viable solution”
Keep in mind you’ve already been living under a partially socialized system, which is the problem.
Prior to the great depression, charity COULD and DID take care of the poor.During the GD, that money dried up and gov stepped in. Prob is, gov never stepped out and kept piling on.
Part of the reason the care is so expensive is because of medicare/medicaid. They are basically guaranteed customers and economically, the effective subsidy drives the price up.
I don’t have your dad’s financial history, but consider someone today in a high tax bracket:
With 70% fed spending on social programs and an effective income tax rate of 30% (presume a 30+ bracket, but earlier income taxed at lower rates), that’s 21% of his income. Then, you’ve got SS and medicare taking about another 7.5%. Throw in state and local at about the same charity proportion and that’s about 30% income he could’ve kept along the way.
Plus with states dictating the content of insurance policies (pre-commie care) that cost was driven up as well as the medical expense.
Free market capitalism ALWAYS works best for the most people. Gov only screws it up. After all, most of that gov “charity” money is actually going to the lavish combination of salary and benefits of those gov employees.
Oh right, that does make sense!
I always thought it would be a good idea for everyone to pay their own Social Security and their own taxes. To not have it withheld , that way people could feel the loss. But whatever liberal set up taking money out of paychecks did it on purpose, so it would be almost invisible For most people.
I helped pay for the retirement of my parents’ generation.Looks like they’re the last generation to die solvent.
why do we always get told that Medicare and Social Security is over and “Broke” but never the ‘Food Stamp or “Welfare” program?
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