Free Republic

For supporters, the law finally removes limits imposed on benefits for public servants. Critics say it would speed up the Social Security program’s insolvency. President Joe Biden on Jan. 5 signed into law a bill that would increase Social Security benefits for millions of Americans who have worked in eligible public service fields. The bill, dubbed the Social Security Fairness Act, specifically boosts benefits for around 3 million Americans who have worked in public jobs, particularly affecting those who received state and local pensions separate from Social Security. “By signing this bill, we’re extending Social Security benefits for millions of...

As early as today, the Senate will vote on an absurd bill to give state and local government employees a $200B+ Social Security bonus.Social Security runs out of money in 10 years and is on a course to insolvency.But instead of fixing the finances, 62 senators – including many Republicans who pretend to be fiscal conservatives – are sponsoring a bill to raise monthly benefits for public employees, even though their complaints are phony. This group of workers ALREADY receives pay and benefits that are 30% higher than comparable private sector workers. Most are already eligible for supersized state pensions....

More members of Congress, 329, co-sponsored the Social Security Fairness Act (SSFA) than nearly any other legislative proposal in 2024, but that may not be evidence of lawmakers’ eagerness to fix what ails the retirement pension program—the bill doesn’t address the fundamental insolvency issue.The SSFA would end two provisions of current law that reduce benefits for millions of public employees at all levels of government with separate pension systems. Eliminating the provisions means more Social Security benefits for such workers.In other words, the SSFA would increase the total amount of Social Security benefits paid out without providing new revenues to...

In a completely predictable turn of events, one of the Ponzi schemes that the federal government has been running is set to collapse in just a few short years. Here’s this, from an item out at FOX Business today:The head actuaries for Social Security and Medicare testified before a House panel on Thursday about the two safety net programs’ looming financial woes that could see key trust funds depleted in roughly a decade, which would leave beneficiaries facing a benefit cut if the funding gap isn’t resolved by Congress.Trustees for Social Security and Medicare recently released a report that looked...

Unrealized losses in the US banking system are once again on the rise, according to new numbers from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). In its Quarterly Banking Profile report, the FDIC says banks are now saddled with more than half a trillion dollars in paper losses on their balance sheets, due largely to exposure to the residential real estate market. Unrealized losses represent the difference between the price banks paid for securities and the current market value of those assets. Although banks can hold securities until they mature without marking them to market on their balance sheets, unrealized losses...

On May 6th, the 2024 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund was released. It’s a very long title for a report that simply tells us the financial state of Medicare and project the future financial solvency of the program. One claim of the report is Medicare solvency has been extended 5 more years than the 2023 projection, and won’t go broke until 2036. But as with all things involving the Biden Administration, that isn’t the entire story.The 261-page report should be a purely factual...

This is a conversation that comes up in Washinton every few years before it fades away without anything being done about it. The clock is ticking for the Social Security system. It's still solvent for the moment, but at the current rate of retirement for senior citizens and the shrinking number of young people entering the workforce, the program will begin running short of cash in roughly nine years. (Possibly a bit longer if the economy strengthens.) The math is fairly straightforward and it obviously needs to be fixed, but thus far, as NPR's Scott Horsley reports, a politically palatable...

The big concern about the failure of Chinese real estate titans Evergrande Group and Country Garden was that their financial collapse would spread into the rest of the economy. Specifically, the concern was that so-called shadow banks, which were involved in many of these property deals, would be impacted. And sure enough last week a major shadow bank called Zhongzhi Enterprise Group sent a letter to investors announcing it was insolvent.China’s Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, a leading wealth manager, told investors it is heavily insolvent with up to $64 billion in liabilities, threatening to reignite concerns that the country’s property debt...

While Biden and his cronies line their own pockets, ordinary voters will get hit the hardest by Democrats’ debt denial.A dozen years ago, Democrats faced a dilemma. A long-term care entitlement known as the CLASS Act that they added to what became Obamacare faced serious solvency concerns. But after Scott Brown, R-Mass., won a shock Senate victory for Republicans in a January 2010 special election, ending Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority, Democrats didn’t have the votes to alter the CLASS Act or remove it from Obamacare.What did Democrats do? The Obama administration suppressed the internal documents showing that the CLASS Act wouldn’t...

anadians are finding it more difficult to pay for food, housing and transportation and nearly half are on the brink of insolvency as rising interest rates and soaring inflation continue to weigh on household budgets. That's according to MNP's quarterly Consumer Debt Index released on Monday. The survey, which is conducted by Ipsos and tracks Canadians' attitudes towards their debt situation, found that 52 per cent of respondents say it is becoming less affordable to feed themselves and their families, an increase of five percentage points from December 2021.

Politicians have been hiding the hard facts of Medicare for decades, and the American people will not like it when they learn the truth.The recently released Medicare trustees report estimates the program’s Part A trust fund faces insolvency in 2028, two years later than last year’s estimate. Some might think that represents a major improvement in the program’s fiscal position. But a fact-checker—at least a politically honest one—might say the 2028 projection lacks important context.In reality, Medicare faces a series of financial challenges, many of them created by fiscal gimmicks, that make the program’s shortfalls much greater than the “official”...

The latest report on funding for social security benefits did not give a financially positive outlook for the future to federal lawmakers. Instead, a report by the Social Security Administration said benefits will cost more than the income collected to pay for it. By 2035, the SSA's Social Security Board of Trustees reported that the money in the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance (OASI and DI) Trust Funds will be depleted, putting funds toward insolvency, meaning it is unable to pay its debts. Slightly sooner, SSA reported the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund would be empty by...

Most conservatives recognize the federal government faces enormous fiscal problems—both a large overhang of debt from spending in years past, and sizable deficits forecast for the years to come. But what to do about it?While spending on things like earmarks and Congress’s failure to right-size spending when passing tax relief have worsened our fiscal woes, at bottom the United States’ financial shortfalls stem from unsustainable entitlements: Obamacare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare. These programs comprise a large, and growing, share of the federal budget, particularly as the Baby Boom generation retires.In the immediate future, President Joe Biden and his Democrat...

Bernie Sanders .. wants to expand Social Security, even as the program will pass an omnious tipping point. Some time next year, as the ranks of retirees swell, the Social Security system in the United States will pass an ominous tipping point and start the slide into insolvency. For the first time in nearly four decades, the government program that provides retirement checks to older Americans will pay out more in benefits in 2020 than it takes in. That will force the program to dip into a rainy day fund that will be depleted in about 15 years. And if...

There is only so much we faithful, native Californians can take. How much beautiful weather is worth this leftist insanity, and/or before this leftism turns into liberty crushing authoritarianism? Just sayin... The midterm elections have turned out as most observers expected, nationally, statewide, and in Sacramento. By historical standards, nationally, the Democrats underperformed and lost a number of high-profile races. There was no Blue Wave—more like a blue ripple. However, California is another story, remaining as blue as can be, and headed right into insolvency. In the contest for governor, California voters chose Democratic politician Gavin Newsom over Republican businessman...

Social Security is like the classic children's tale, "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." So many warnings have been made, no one listens anymore. Well guess what? The wolf's now at the door. Are you listening now? For the first time in 36 years, Social Security will take money out of its "trust fund" — an accounting fiction that would get you jailed for fraud in the private sector — to pay retirees. The truth is, Social Security is for all intents and purposes bankrupt. Since 2010, Social Security has been spending more than it took in, making up the difference...

The latest official report on Medicare's financial status says it will be insolvent in 2026 — just eight years from now. So much for the promise that ObamaCare had fixed that program for the long term. When he signed ObamaCare into law in 2010, President Obama bragged repeatedly that ObamaCare's combination of slowing down overall health spending, payment cuts to providers, improved productivity and quality, as well as less waste, fraud, and abuse would vastly extend Medicare's solvency. He promised ObamaCare would guarantee that Medicare's "sacred trust between America and its seniors … is never broken." Turns out "never" isn't...

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...

The Treasury Department on Friday rejected an effort by the Teamsters Central States Pension Plan to cut benefits for 270,000 retired workers starting in July. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in a letter to members of Congress that while the decision blocks the pending pension cuts, it does not resolve the issue because the pension plan remains severely underfunded and is projected to become insolvent within the next 10 years. …