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 ...
Chilean is unworkable. The now solvent fund would just be disbursed to illegal foreigners around the world, just like welfare does.
No matter how big the fund, the State shall spend it, even give it away to the world. Or give bailouts to wall street.
I’ll be outta here by then.
You could also remove the illegals from the benefits.
Get ready for this: the next step in the government borrowing from Peter to pay Paul is going to be retirement funds.
Existing funds from held funds normally used for investments like IRA’s and T-bills, are going to be raided with a promise of repayment, which never seems to happen as we are in the current shape due to that, to fund what they call required programs which now include social security and medicare. And if you think it’s inconceivable for the government to borrow your retirement savings, just consider the following.
Forced loans have been a common tactic of bankrupt governments throughout history. And there’s recent precedent all over the world; Hungary, France, Ireland, and Poland are among many governments that have resorted to ‘borrowing’ public and private pension funds.
During the multiple debt ceiling fiascos since 2011, the Treasury Department resorted to “extraordinary measures” at least twice in order to continue funding the government. They dipped into federal retirement funds and borrowed what they needed to tide them over. In fact, the debt ceiling debacles were only resolved because the Treasury Department had fully depleted available retirement funds.
In 2015 the government initiated an act that is called MyRA and the idea is for people to invest retirement savings ‘in the safety and security of US government bonds’.
But like the ACA, it, in time, will have teeth to hold on like a bulldog. It will charge a penalty to employers whose workers don’t have a retirement account at $100, per worker, per day. Not the real incentive here as they advertise it. It is another punishment for the feds not being able to get what they want from you. And it will clobber employment putting more people dependent on the government.
Oh, a reminder. Did anyone start to think that this funds recovery may have started with the mortgage debacle in the late 90’s? Ooooohhhh but these government crooks are bloody greedy. And as they are handing their mismanagement mistakes back to the taxpayer they are closing the door of the freedoms we know.
rwood
Time to sell all the US Govenment land that is not US National parks or military usage. How many trillions is it worth?
Why “they”ask, with a stupid look on their face ?
BECAUSE US OLD PEOPLE WILL BEAT YOU WITH CANES TILL WE GET OUR MONEY ! And that’s just a start...
You could change the cost of living measure.”””
Under Obama, food & gasoline costs were NOT considered in the “COL’ adjustments.
With $5 gallon gas, we got no increases.
Obama made sure that Fed employees got 2.5% increases. WE got .2% increase. I got $4 a month with that ‘adjustment’. My phone bill went up over $6 a month alone & with Nevada giving Illegals driver’s licenses, my vehicle insurance has gone up over $50 a month. Left me $52 a month further into the hole.
“People weren’t suppose to live long enough to collect Social Security.”
We weren’t supposed to bring the third world here and give them benefits either.
Get ready for higher taxes folks! The ponzi scheme is collapsing.
“People weren’t suppose to live long enough to collect Social Security.”
That’s why I plan to take it at 62, it may not be around by the time I hit 65.
Agree, timing is everything with the media. This story pops on primary day, but who does it benefit? Dems promise the moon and never produce, Trump actually gets thing done despite them. I’m glad the issue comes to light now, great campaign topic for someone who can fix it. Republicans can pound the Dems with it, but they better get on it.....
Unfortunately, the response of way to many “conservatives” to all of this is:
1. Don’t touch my Social Security and Medicate since I paid for it.
2. Get rid of “waste” to fund the deficit, or get the politicians who created the mess to pay for it.
Good point. I missed that.
That will NEVER HAPPEN because the a$$holes in (see My Tagline) could not create any Law that short much less pass it.
Because SS is basically a pay-as-you-go system with no accumulated funds, how is insolvency defined? It seems that outflows and inflows should pretty much offset each year.
There is no SS Trust Fund. All the SS has are IOU Certificates for all the so called SS Surplus that has been spent by congress since about 1967.
The only way they get money for those IOS’s is to take them to the Treasury and they sell bonds that increase the deficit and debt to turn them into money.
So there is no magical account with $3 Trillion in it to save the day.
Correction: That's what we get for them setting up this ponzi scheme.
“I’ve been paying in since I was 14 been paying for about 35 years...l
Not a lot I can do about that at this point in my life except say “Thank you!”...and encourage you to continue working as long as possible! Oh and...wife’s pulling the SS plug in seven weeks. She says “Thank you!” too!
I recall GWB proposing a credible partial privatization plan, affecting no current retirees, which still left the Democrats and their media minions caterwauling so loudly about his "heartlessness" that he scrapped the whole idea.
The Democrats never propose changes or fixes to Social Security, but scream bloody murder when a Republican dares to even approach the third rail.
So, here we sit, with no hope of a solution anytime soon.
I surprises me how many people think that theft is justifiable because a government the majority of us barely tolerate and who never keeps it’s word “promised” to rob form future generations to sustain their ponzi scheme for the current recipients
What surprises me is that there are still freepers who think they actually have any personal interest in the money they paid into 'social security'. The supreme court has ruled definitively that you have no personal interest in any of the money. If you did, you'd be able to bequeath the sum upon death. If you die at 64 years old, you and your heirs get nothing.
Face it. 'Social security' was and is nothing but another tax upon the working people of this country with a fancy name that fools fools. 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.
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