Social Security deficit slides-worst in a generation-Hey,lets mess up health care too

[Neotrotsky]

Social Security deficit slides-worst in a generation-Hey, lets mess health care too

After seeing what a good job the gov't did with Social Security, they want the people to believe that they can do a better job at health care


Tip: HotAir

Steve at No Runny Eggs has kept a close eye on the financial statements from the Social Security administration, and he has good reason to do so. Earlier this year, we began to see monthly deficits from SSA, a result of income drops as the recession and unemployment deepened. However, with the Obama administration arguing that the economy has already begun its recovery, the deficits at SSA have hit their deepest ever:

The Social Security Administration’s Office of the Chief Actuary finally got around to posting the detailed November numbers for Social Security, and things have only gotten worse:

The combined OASDI (Old-Age Survivors and Disability Insurance) “Trust” Funds posted a $5.858 billion primary (cash, non-“interest”) deficit for November, the worst monthly performance since monthly records began in 1987.
The 12-month OASDI primary surplus was only $9.598 billion, also the worst 12-month performance since monthly records began.
Since there won’t be an cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits, the combined funds may yet avoid a 12-month primary deficit in 2010 by the skin of its teeth. However, that is dependent on an improvement in the wage situation, and specifically an improvement in the job prospects of those between 62 and 67 years old. Somehow I don’t see the trend of older and higher-earning workers losing their jobs disproportionately reversing.
Recall that Peter Orszag, now Director of OMB, predicted as CBO Director in August 2008 that no one needed to worry about SSA until 2019:

Today, Social Security’s revenues each year are greater than its outlays, but as the baby-boom generation (people born between 1946 and 1964) continues to age, growth in the number of Social Security beneficiaries will accelerate, and outlays will grow substantially faster than revenues. CBO projects that outlays will first exceed revenues in 2019 and that the Social Security trust funds will be exhausted in 2049.2 If the law remains unchanged, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will then no longer have the legal authority to pay full benefits.

Orszag wasn’t even right in the month he made the prediction. Democrats used this analysis to paint Republicans demanding Social Security reform as hysterics who wanted to attack retiree benefits and suck up to Wall Street. Here’s the cash flow for the past two years as reported by SSA.

 

[kyzr]

The solvency of SS & Medicare will be the hottest hot-button issue in 2010, 2012, and 2014, since medicare is projected to go bankrupt in 2016. The crp just hit the fan and its heading at the dems. They are wasting money at incredible rates, and never once mentioned Medicare and SS?! How stupid id that, and blaming that on Bush is a non-starter.

Hey dems, where's my SS & Medicare that I worked for all my life?

 

[NYcarbineer]

Isn't it the right now claiming to be the diehard defenders of Medicare? Not a penny in cuts of any kind?

 

[NYcarbineer]

The solvency of SS & Medicare will be the hottest hot-button issue in 2010, 2012, and 2014, since medicare is projected to go bankrupt in 2016. The crp just hit the fan and its heading at the dems. They are wasting money at incredible rates, and never once mentioned Medicare and SS?! How stupid id that, and blaming that on Bush is a non-starter.

Hey dems, where's my SS & Medicare that I worked for all my life?

Medicare was projected to go bankrupt in 1997. And several other years in the past 30.

 

[VaYank5150]

Isn't it the right now claiming to be the diehard defenders of Medicare? Not a penny in cuts of any kind?

Oh yes. "We don't need no stinkin's government run healthcare"......."but hands off my MediCare"!

 

[kyzr]

Isn't it the right now claiming to be the diehard defenders of Medicare? Not a penny in cuts of any kind?

Oh yes. "We don't need no stinkin's government run healthcare"......."but hands off my MediCare"!

Maybe you just don't get it. Medicare is just about bankrupt, SS will be bankrupt about 2030 and Obama and the dems are doubling the national debt.

The Mayo Clinic will NOT accept any more Medicare patients because they lost $850m on them last year, several of my local hospitals are going bankrupt, with medicare costs a major factor. So you tell me, whats wrong with the medical system today as compared with NO DOCTORS WILLING TO TAKE MEDICARE , or a bankrupt medicare system and no safety net for the elderly?

Obama will get blamed for the medical & medicare system problems, so he better get busy finding answers.

 

[Citizen]

Although I do not have the answers, maybe if the government had not lumped SS into the general fund, and paid interest on the amounts they borrowed from it over the years it would not be going bankrupt.

 

[SwingVoter]

There's an economic reality neither Dems nor GOP can stand - you can't cut costs in health care unless you cut supply. No other way is realistic, doesn't matter the extent to which government gets involved.

 

[Oddball]

Good evening. On Tuesday, we Americans will have the opportunity to exercise our role as citizens in a free democracy. Yet, only a third of the eligible voters will actually cast ballots. The other two-thirds are, in a sense, very lucky. Because they do not know what’s going on.

Last week, I delivered a message on inflation. Since then, the dollar has dropped in value, the stock market has sustained record losses, and the whole sow price index increased 0.9%. In other words, our economic system is screwed, blued and tatooed! We just have to face the fact that there is simply no way to fight inflation in a capitolly-intensive, highly-technological, conflict-riddled, anything-for-a-thrill world of today. That’s why, tonight, I want you to try to look for in inflation, an entirely new word: Inflation is our friend.

For example, consider this: in the year 2000, if current trends continue, the average blue-collar annual wage in this country will be $568,000. Think what this inflated world of the future will mean – most Americans will be millionaires. Everyone will feel like a bigshot. Wouldn’t you like to own a $4,000 suit, and smoke a $75 cigar, drive a $600,000 car? I know I would! But what about people on fixed incomes? They have always been the true victims of inflation. That’s why I will present to Congress the “Inflation Maintenance Program”, whereby the U.S. Treasury will make up any inflation-caused losses to direct tax rebates to the public in cash. Then you may say, “Won’t that cost a lot of money? Won’t that increase the deficit?” Sure it will! But so what? We’ll just print more money! We have the papers, we have the mints.. I can just call up the Bureau of Engraving and say, “Hi! This is Jimmy. Roll out some of them twenties! Print up a couple thousand sheets of those Century Notes!” Sure, all these dollars will cause even more inflation, but who cares? Everyone will be a millionaire!

In my speech last week, I said that America would have to undergo an austerity program, but since this revolutionary new approach welcomes inflation, our economy will be free to grow, and we can spend, spend, spend! I believe the watchwords for the 80’s should be “Let’s Party!”




Meet the new boss.............

 

[uscitizen]

The solvency of SS & Medicare will be the hottest hot-button issue in 2010, 2012, and 2014, since medicare is projected to go bankrupt in 2016. The crp just hit the fan and its heading at the dems. They are wasting money at incredible rates, and never once mentioned Medicare and SS?! How stupid id that, and blaming that on Bush is a non-starter.

Hey dems, where's my SS & Medicare that I worked for all my life?

Medicare was projected to go bankrupt in 1997. And several other years in the past 30.

From the article in tha OP:

"CBO projects that outlays will first exceed revenues in 2019 and that the Social Security trust funds will be exhausted in 2049."

You youngins need to grab those bootstraps and pull yourself up so you can make more money and pay more SSI in.

 

[Toronado3800]

You youngins need to grab those bootstraps and pull yourself up so you can make more money and pay more SSI in.

nah, just need to fix the retirement age to a percentage of life expectancy. Its all simple math. Keep folks working until 72, remove the "welfare for the wealthy" cap on SS taxes, import a good amount of young Mexican Labor to adjust the baby boom bubble, there are ways to fix the Social Security math problem.

 

[Neotrotsky]

You youngins need to grab those bootstraps and pull yourself up so you can make more money and pay more SSI in.

nah, just need to fix the retirement age to a percentage of life expectancy. Its all simple math. Keep folks working until 72, remove the "welfare for the wealthy" cap on SS taxes, import a good amount of young Mexican Labor to adjust the baby boom bubble, there are ways to fix the Social Security math problem.

Since the gov't has shown an inability to run it properly, perhaps it be better to let people control more of their own money under plans like a 401k or IRA?

Of course, it would need a transitional time frame to change over younger workers while ones under the old system past on. The idea being to limit the amount of any negative impact

 

[Oddball]

You youngins need to grab those bootstraps and pull yourself up so you can make more money and pay more SSI in.

nah, just need to fix the retirement age to a percentage of life expectancy. Its all simple math. Keep folks working until 72, remove the "welfare for the wealthy" cap on SS taxes, import a good amount of young Mexican Labor to adjust the baby boom bubble, there are ways to fix the Social Security math problem.

Meh....We just need top print up some more money.

 

[Neotrotsky]

You youngins need to grab those bootstraps and pull yourself up so you can make more money and pay more SSI in.

nah, just need to fix the retirement age to a percentage of life expectancy. Its all simple math. Keep folks working until 72, remove the "welfare for the wealthy" cap on SS taxes, import a good amount of young Mexican Labor to adjust the baby boom bubble, there are ways to fix the Social Security math problem.

Meh....We just need top print up some more money.

Don't worry
we are doing plenty of that

 

[Toronado3800]

Meh....We just need top print up some more money.

Lol! Well if I owe someone $10,000 paying it back will hurt less if the currency is devalued when I do.

Since the gov't has shown an inability to run it properly, perhaps it be better to let people control more of their own money under plans like a 401k or IRA?

Of course, it would need a transitional time frame to change over younger workers while ones under the old system past on. The idea being to limit the amount of any negative impact

I'm against it but it is not an idea w/o merit. After all if W Bush would have began dumping SS money into the markets in 2002 there would have been quite the influx of cash and perhaps the Dow Jones would have made rather than lost money during the last decade. Amazingly bad considering they can throw companies out of their system.

Of course everyone thinks they'd be part of the 1/2 of investors who outperform the average.

Really SS is just there to guarantee folks have SOME income in old age or SOME income if early benefits are called for due to disability. Them poor folks can really benefit from it more than market investments. It is not going to ever be a good sole source of income.

 

[kyzr]

You youngins need to grab those bootstraps and pull yourself up so you can make more money and pay more SSI in.

nah, just need to fix the retirement age to a percentage of life expectancy. Its all simple math. Keep folks working until 72, remove the "welfare for the wealthy" cap on SS taxes, import a good amount of young Mexican Labor to adjust the baby boom bubble, there are ways to fix the Social Security math problem.

Fixing SS is easy. Means test, lump in all those govt workers currently not in. Take off the cap so the rich folks pay a bit more and voila! SS is fixed. the DC clowns won't even do this "layup" as Obama described it, why not??

Fixing Medicare is impossible w/o rationing. We'd need to stop wasting 50% of the medical resources on the sickest 5% of the people, and then stop wasting 24% of medical resources on the dying. I don't know how to "ration" medical resources w/o calling it "rationing".

 

[Neotrotsky]

You youngins need to grab those bootstraps and pull yourself up so you can make more money and pay more SSI in.

nah, just need to fix the retirement age to a percentage of life expectancy. Its all simple math. Keep folks working until 72, remove the "welfare for the wealthy" cap on SS taxes, import a good amount of young Mexican Labor to adjust the baby boom bubble, there are ways to fix the Social Security math problem.

Fixing SS is easy. Means test, lump in all those govt workers currently not in. Take off the cap so the rich folks pay a bit more and voila! SS is fixed. the DC clowns won't even do this "layup" as Obama described it, why not??

Fixing Medicare is impossible w/o rationing. We'd need to stop wasting 50% of the medical resources on the sickest 5% of the people, and then stop wasting 24% of medical resources on the dying. I don't know how to "ration" medical resources w/o calling it "rationing".

I agree on the means test. It does seem odd that Bill Gates and some guy worked at say GM and capped out, will be getting the same amount of SS

The problem there is politics. The politicians do not count the withholding payments for SS taxes as taxes. They make the argument that they are not taxes since we the get the money back (at a terrible rate of return)

If we did means test then it becomes a tax outright.
Of course if you are in the higher bracket say 35%, now add the 7.5% your employer takes out, your effective rate is 42.5%.

Of course, if one considers that your employer has to match the 7.5% , which you never see in your check to hide the cost of SS from the employee, is still a payment to you
then the effective rate is now 50% !

This is reason the politicians avoid means test for SS payments

 

[rightwinger]

Health care is already messed up

 

[Oddball]

Fixing SS is easy. Means test.....

My ass....That's just another way for politicians and bureaucrats to play God, in deciding who "needs" to have the money that has been earned by and expropriated from them their whole working lives and who doesn't.

Fixing Medicare is impossible w/o rationing. We'd need to stop wasting 50% of the medical resources on the sickest 5% of the people, and then stop wasting 24% of medical resources on the dying. I don't know how to "ration" medical resources w/o calling it "rationing".

Medicare needs to be junked altogether, as the utter demonstrable failure that it is.

 

[kyzr]

Fixing SS is easy. Means test.....

My ass....That's just another way for politicians and bureaucrats to play God, in deciding who "needs" to have the money that has been earned by and expropriated from them their whole working lives and who doesn't.

Fixing Medicare is impossible w/o rationing. We'd need to stop wasting 50% of the medical resources on the sickest 5% of the people, and then stop wasting 24% of medical resources on the dying. I don't know how to "ration" medical resources w/o calling it "rationing".

Medicare needs to be junked altogether, as the utter demonstrable failure that it is.

1. SS is workable w/ a small tweak. Besides, you did not say what we're supposed to live on after we retire, and after paying into SS all our lives. JUST FIX IT!

2. Medicare needs to be fixed, or else tell us what medical care we get after paying into Medicare all our lives. JUST FIX IT.