Breaking on NYT - SS & Medicare funds could be exhausted earlier than anticipated

[Hawaii Hiker]

http://nytimes.com/?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1242154189-Pr6PaqETY9MJtKD+z0UmSg

Complete story not up yet, only Breaking...

I've heard many times that fixing the Medicare mess is far more complicated than Social Security.....

I have 30 years left to work, I hope Social Security is there....:banghead:

[Teaser]

1. we've been through this

at worst, for SS, it'd mean a reduction in benefits for you. not an elimination. And that's a worst case scenario.

[tj2001]

2. Didn't we go through this before with W?

Sounds like deja vu all over again... :(

[Donnachaidh]

3. I'm more inclined to believe this is a smokescreen to scare people into

shutting up and agreeing to the healthcare *solution* they want to cram down our throats. I wouldn't put it past the corporo-Dems to start pushing the message of *shut up, get to the back of the bus, because WE are the ones who will *fix* everything*.

I call BS on this article. It's a scare tactic.

[JHB]

7. I'll second your call...

...and guess that whatever part is "real" is mostly due projections based on obviously unsutainable trends.

[TimesSquareCowboy]

9. I agree. How can we want more, when we can't even fund what we have?

is the message they're trying to send.

[Warpy]

4. That's another reason we need single payer NOW

Illness is not a consumer decision and it's not restricted to one age or another, although older people are statistically more likely to need care.

Insuring only the old and the young while abandoning adults in their productive years is INSANE.

It's time to end the madness. Unfortunately, Congress seems hell bent on preserving the holy corporations at the expense of their own constituents.

[DJ13]

5. A bit of PR to get more support for increasing the cap on income

Hope it works.

[rocktivity]

6. FEARMONGERING ALERT!

They're trying to scare us away from single-payer healthcare. And If SS is faltering, raise or eliminate the salary cap.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[bluestateguy]

8. I'll solve this problem in 30 seconds for you

Lift the earnings cap on FICA taxes.

Problem solved.

Drinks on me.

[billyoc]

10. Elimate the FICA cap, the system will be flush with cash for centuries.

[cpamomfromtexas]

12. Then the bigwigs will just take theirs in stock options and dividends

[asjr]

11. Is this same song, different verse? This

notion crops up at least 3 times a year.

[OHdem10]

13. As long as they use SS to cover other parts of the Budget and they

do this all the time, sure it will run out.

[JHB]

14. Story's in: Social Security and Medicare Finances Worsen (by AP)

Social Security and Medicare Finances Worsen

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 12, 2009
Filed at 2:38 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The financial health of Social Security and Medicare, the government's two biggest benefit programs, worsened in the past year because of the severe recession.

Trustees of the two programs said Tuesday that Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2016, one year sooner than projected last year, and the giant trust fund will be depleted by 2037, four years sooner.

The trustees said Medicare was in even worse shape. They said that the trust fund for hospital expenses will pay out more in benefits than it collects this year and will be insolvent by 2017, two years earlier than the date projected in last year's report.
------------------------------------------

As predicted: For SS: raise the income caps.

For Medicare: Fix the whole damn health care system. Medicare is only costing this much because the insurance and pharma companies are vacuuming everyone's pockets.

[BeFree]

15. The government is broke

They borrow billions of dollars a year. Eventually the government will have to file chapter 11 or some such bankrupt plan.

Or, they could tax cigarettes.

[onethatcares]

16. why does "the Shock Doctrine" keep coming back to haunt me?

when the powers that be decide the poor aren't worthy of any type of social safety net so it has to be eliminated and the serfs left to fight it out for the scraps that are left?

They (the bankers) fucked us, they fucked us hard and are smiling while they smoke their cigarettes.