Social Security will run a permanent yearly deficit when looking at the program’s tax revenues compared to what it must pay out in benefits, the program’s trustees said Friday in a report that found both the outlook for Social Security and Medicare, the two major federal social safety-net programs, have worsened over the last year...
The figures come as Congress and President Obama are wrestling over whether to make major changes to the entitlement spending, and Republicans said the new projections should force the debate to turn in their direction.
“Today’s report makes it clearer than ever that doing nothing is not an option. The failure to act means current as well as future beneficiaries, will face significant cuts even sooner than previously estimated,” said three top House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee, which oversees both programs...
Social Security began running an annual deficit in 2010 when looking at tax income and benefit payments...
Social Security's challenges are mild compared to those of Medicare. Moreover, Social Security can be fixed with some actuarial changes (eligibility age, benefit structure, funding, or some combination of the three). Medicare's challenges are far more complex. In part, they result, from problems inherent in the nation's health care system, specifically the excessive cost growth problem.
Social Security's challenges are mild compared to those of Medicare. Moreover, Social Security can be fixed with some actuarial changes (eligibility age, benefit structure, funding, or some combination of the three). Medicare's challenges are far more complex. In part, they result, from problems inherent in the nation's health care system, specifically the excessive cost growth problem.
Yup. The entitlements have now officially shifted from being a source of extra "revenue" (yay free money! yay hopefully never having to pay it back! we have to pay it back? yay for making our kids cover the tab!) to a drain on a General Budget that is already running an annual $1.5 Trillion Deficit.
cpwill said:heyyyyyy, now this strikes me as the perfect time to create a brand-new huge entitlement! :roll: Obamacare, meet your doom - you have predecessors and they've already taken all the money.
I suggest the following steps to solve the social security imbalance. If these steps are followed, the program could be made solvent into the foreseeable future:
1. Automatically raise the retirement age by 2 months every year.
2. Index starting benefits to price inflation, rather than wage inflation.
3. Index annual increases to a price inflation measurement that takes into account changes in buying habits, rather than the antiquated CPI.
4. Allow more legal immigration, so that we have more young people to balance the number of older people.
5. Means-test social security, so that we start reducing benefits when the recipient is earning around $150K per year, and phase them out entirely by $250K.
6. Increase the cap on taxable income for social security; we should be taxing at least up to $200K, rather than the $100K we tax now.
This assumes that the Affordable Care Act creates an expense out of thin air that previously did not exist.
I suggest the following steps to solve the social security imbalance. If these steps are followed, the program could be made solvent into the foreseeable future:
1. Automatically raise the retirement age by 2 months every year.
2. Index starting benefits to price inflation, rather than wage inflation.
3. Index annual increases to a price inflation measurement that takes into account changes in buying habits, rather than the antiquated CPI.
4. Allow more legal immigration, so that we have more young people to balance the number of older people.
5. Means-test social security, so that we start reducing benefits when the recipient is earning around $150K per year, and phase them out entirely by $250K.
6. Increase the cap on taxable income for social security; we should be taxing at least up to $200K, rather than the $100K we tax now.
This assumes that the Affordable Care Act creates an expense out of thin air that previously did not exist. It already existed, it was just being paid in the private sector, or by the public in other ways. Had the ACA not become law, it would not change the underlying problem with rising health expenditures, it would just foist them off to individuals and/or make the public pay for it in more concealed ways (e.g. lost productivity from being sick, inefficient pricing mechanisms, etc.)
it doesn't have to assume any such thing - the ACA objectively does do this. Specifically the subsidy for general middle-class health insurance.
Social Security's challenges are mild compared to those of Medicare. Moreover, Social Security can be fixed with some actuarial changes (eligibility age, benefit structure, funding, or some combination of the three). Medicare's challenges are far more complex. In part, they result, from problems inherent in the nation's health care system, specifically the excessive cost growth problem.
It can be fixed by ending the program. Now.
10 year, pay out by age grouping, oldest to youngest then END it.
Same thing with Medicaide and Medicare. You CANNOT make massive entitlement programs sustainable, all you can do is punt the issue.
But then it's time to be honest, you either say "we're going to take care of our elderly" or "we're not going to take care of our elderly".
Be honest.
If you're a retired construction worker, you have athritis and you didn't make enough to pay for health care in old age, you're ****ed.
But that's ok as long as someone is willing to say "sorry chum, we can't afford you".
It's not wrong as long as you're honest about it.
That's a false choice that's couched in the LIE that only GOVERNMENT can take care of people. Listen to you lot, just listen to yourselves. "Oh woes us, if Government doesn't care for us, we're DOOMED!!!"But then it's time to be honest, you either say "we're going to take care of our elderly" or "we're not going to take care of our elderly".
I am being honest, you want honesty? How about you admit you're scared of growing up, taking care of yourself, better to let the State do it for you, cause you're afraid.Be honest.
Oh noes! Scare tactics! What's next the race card? The "victim" card?If you're a retired construction worker, you have athritis and you didn't make enough to pay for health care in old age, you're ****ed.
It's not "Sorry chum, we can't afford you." It's "Hey, you had choices, you live with them."But that's ok as long as someone is willing to say "sorry chum, we can't afford you".
It's not wrong as long as you're honest about it.
That's a false choice that's couched in the LIE that only GOVERNMENT can take care of people. Listen to you lot, just listen to yourselves. "Oh woes us, if Government doesn't care for us, we're DOOMED!!!"
How silly, how pathetic you all sound. The politicians promise you a "safe" way, convince you that without their benevolent guidance, you will starve in the streets, die in the cold, weep alone. And instead of saying "Bugger off", you flock in fear of your own stupidity. What about personal responsibility? Oh wait, that's a scary term, it means planning, saving, being responsible. Can't have that, someone might screw up, and then what? Who saves them eh?
What happens when the whole system collapses under the weight of it's own stinking lies? The whole welfare state paradigm is built on sand, a house of cards just waiting for one good puff of wind to blow it all over.
I am being honest, you want honesty? How about you admit you're scared of growing up, taking care of yourself, better to let the State do it for you, cause you're afraid.
Oh noes! Scare tactics! What's next the race card? The "victim" card?
It's not "Sorry chum, we can't afford you." It's "Hey, you had choices, you live with them."
It would help your case if you were honest, just for a moment. You're AFRAID.
Yes, I suppose the left wing "The world will end, women and children and old people will STARVE AND DIE and LIFE WILL BE SUCK!!" if, we ended big government entitlement programs isn't the song of cowards afraid of their own existence, it's "reality!"None of this right wing rhetoric bull**** is honestly worth a streak of piss.
LIFE is hard times, grow up. No one owes me a penny, and I don't owe anyone jack ****. All Big Government Entitlement Programs are pathetic slugs of life demanding other people PAY FOR THEIR LIVES. "OH WOES ME!!! I FELL ON HARD TIMES!!! Oh Mr. Politician! Here's my vote!!! Give me other peoples hard earned labor! I don't give a rats ass about anyone else, gimmie gimmie gimmie!!!"I'm not ****ing afraid, I'm going to be just fine, and good you're honest, lets just hope if you get your way, and all of it is abolished, that you might not need it cause you fell on hard times.
Otherwise, I'll throw a quarter in your hat, private charity and all that.
A difference in philosophy.
That's all that seperates us.
Problem is, the raving, mouth foaming way you put it, is irrelevent in totality.
You say, they should be ended, Republicans have held all levels of government at various points, why have they never ended it? Is it because perhaps they realise the human impact of such a decision?
You see government as the problem, and regardless of what you may think, I don't see government as a solution.
What I do see government as, is a medium, a tool. That WE THE PEOPLE control, I see a better use for government that is accountable to the people, then a private corporation with an agenda when it comes to citizens needs, rather then their wants.
A tool in which THE PEOPLE combine their recources to tackle a problem, whether it be the education of our children, the health of our people, and the defence of our nation.
You see Health Care as a priveledge, I see health care as a fundamental right for me and my fellow citizen, we stand as one, or we fall as one, a nation divided against itself cannot stand, for a nation to be prosperous in this century, it must unite itself and point itself in a single direction, it must commit itself to 21st century solutions that provide prosperity, gutting education, health and various other things will not achieve that goal.
And a disclaimer on that last point, yes I know more money doesn't mean better results, HOWEVER, where are the solutions then, its not as if cutting funding is magically going to fix the fact that America's schools are crumbling. And it's not entirely the unions fault either, I mean seriously, what happened to personal responsbility with the child and the parents. Oh wait I forgot there's an election next year, better hammer the left eh
Anywho.
Yeah, Republicans have had plenty of oppertunity to gut the Dept. of Education, medicare and medicaid and Social Security, I mean **** Leave No Child Behind is the dumbest piece of **** legislation perhaps in Educational history...
Anyway.
Your opinion and my opinion will butt heads til the end of time, and I'm well aware that the reality is, you cannot afford to run these programs in the long term, but the other issue is, private health insurance has been butt ****ing the American Public for years now and it's going to continue.
The thing is, no solution is absolutely perfect, not yours, not mine, not anybody's, as Tony Blair once said
"All you can really do, is try to make most of the people happy, most of the time".
They have held power, and they have failed to do the right thing, because people are idiots. They don't care about tomorrow, they care about today. What can I have today > what might have to be paid for tomorrow.
Look around you Jet, Credit Cards maxxed, people buying homes they cannot afford, cars they cannot pay for. Politicians keeping false promises of a better tomorrow for votes to today in return for spending. Progressives, of all political stripes, that's who I blame.
And Duece agains adds nothing to a thread.
Why did America Elect such people taht have no faith in the Country? The shame of this Administration will take a generation to expunge.
Yup. The entitlements have now officially shifted from being a source of extra "revenue" (yay free money! yay hopefully never having to pay it back! we have to pay it back? yay for making our kids cover the tab!) to a drain on a General Budget that is already running an annual $1.5 Trillion Deficit.
heyyyyyy, now this strikes me as the perfect time to create a brand-new huge entitlement! :roll: Obamacare, meet your doom - you have predecessors and they've already taken all the money.
Overstated just like foxnews...part of the scare campaign by the right...Im always suspect when either a right or left leaning outlet is the only one to report on something.
Social security needs fixed but not by giving tax cuts to the rich and corporations
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