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 ...
Not surprising. Most of us paid into these guaranteed programs for several decades. Now, the welfare slugs continue to dominate the budget. If something doesn’t change welfare moochers will soon get 90% of the budget.
Or you could privatize it (the Chile model).
I would take a lump sum payout of what my contributions over the year add up to, even if it was required to be deposited into my IRA and the lump sum amounted to Treasury Bonds with varying maturities. If my current 6% SSI tax and my employer match were set to be paid directly into my IRA every month, and my 401(k) contributions (together with my employer’s match) could similarly be directed to my IRA, I think I could be set for a nice long retirement if God gives me the years...
It won’t happen though. The Federal Reserve is the only institution that owns enough T-Bonds to make that work, and the government work for the Fed, not the other way around.
Good one!
No one ever worries about the “Welfare Fund”
Serious attack on fraud and abuse would make a huge diff I am sure
“Today, the federal government automatically puts all of the money that should be set aside for the Social Security Trust Fund into the General Fund. Raiding the Social Security Trust Fund was a precedent set in 1968 by another progressive president, Lyndon B. Johnson, to help pay for the Vietnam War.”
This is what I remembered. Once LBJ moved it from a trust fund to the general fund the government could raid it and replace the $$$ with T notes.
Raising age is the only ethical answer. It was meant as an end of life safety net. Not a retirement plan. Means testing is unethical because all who paid in were promised a return. That’s fraud. Making the wealthy pay more is garbage socialism. We’re already saddling the wealthy with too many bills.
Never replaced with actual T Notes, they were "IOU's" or "promises".
If I were entering the workforce this would be a high priority for my "activism", not the environment or anti-2nd amendment or diversity , something actually important and substantive.
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Breaking out the social security scare in time for the election.
Scaring old people will help get them to the polls.
Democrat policies are the ones that are a threat to social security in medicare. But the useless republicans haven’t figured out how to win that argument the last 40 years.
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The ‘scare’ has been public since day one of the illegal\unconstitutional Ponzi scheme.
Not sure what you mean re: (R). I haven’t even seen ‘em try to do anything to SOLVE the ‘problem’ but post-pone the inevitable by kicking the can down the road (raising age limits, means testing, etc.).
True that, the one time they did float that trial-balloon about ‘privatizing’ SS, they got their @ss handed to ‘em. But, again, I don’t recall even the beginnings of a conversation on the ‘why’
IMO, (R) don’t know HOW to ‘win’ these debates/battles, they don’t WANT to give up the power, just like the Leftists.
“workable”
No. What works is government staying out of it.
What to do with the elderly poor?
It’s called charity.
That’s how they dealt with it before the great depression (gd). Local benevolent societies created by local rich and upper middle class.
Of course,there should absolutely be nothing paid out to non-citizens. I don’t know how much this accounts for the total problem,but I’m betting that someone(s)in our government knows exactly where the S.S. money is going out where it should not be. This is what we need to be zeroing in on. I don’t believe it’s as difficult a problem to solve as the obstructionists in our government would have us believe.
How about if you have 200k taxable income after 65, you forego your SS benefits and instead get a tax deduction for the amount you would otherwise receive.
100-200k taxable income, a tax credit for your otherwise
payable SS. Under 100k pension yr., no changes.
Or something along those lines.
SSI Has done a real number on the social security fund I would think. Social security is being give to so many people who never paid in a dime. Of course it is going to go bankrupt even without the ‘Baby Boomers’.
RE: How about if you have 200k taxable income after 65, you forego your SS benefits and instead get a tax deduction for the amount you would otherwise receive.
I like that except for the one question -— how does this solve the SS insolvency problem?
Think about it, do we have enough people at age 65 who have a $200K and above taxable income ( other than the hedge fund manager types )?
well if the gov can pay illegals and give platinum plated benefits for “refugees” they better have my money available when i get old...
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