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Brain -> RE: New Polling Says Overwhelming Majority Wants Social Security Left Alone (5/24/2011 10:08:45 PM)
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It's better to do nothing than to adopt the Ryan plan or the Republican plan passed in the House. There is plenty of time to pass legislation to correct the shortfall. I suggest Democrats wait until the next elections when they take back the House and the Senate. At that time they can protect Social Security and Medicare instead of ending Medicare, annihilating Medicaid and making cuts to Social Security almost immediately.
Medicare, Social Security Funds Expiring Sooner, U.S. Says
While Medicare won’t have sufficient funds to pay full benefits starting in 2024, five years earlier than last year’s estimate, Social Security’s cash to pay full benefits runs short in 2036, a year sooner than the 2010 projection, the U.S. government said today in an annual report.
When Medicare and Social Security funds run short, they will pay less in benefits rather than stop paying entirely. Social Security would have to cut payments by 23 percent, while Medicare would reduce by 10 percent what it pays hospitals and other inpatient care providers.
“The current situation does not necessitate rushed or severe action,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana. “We must continue to protect the Social Security benefits our seniors count on.”
The new projections partly roll back last year’s trustees analysis, which credited the 2010 health care overhaul with expanding the life of the Medicare trust fund by 12 years.
Social Security law requires program spending to match revenue, so a lack of action by lawmakers by that time will mean benefits will have to be cut 23 percent -- or the Social Security payroll tax increased to 16 percent, or a combination, the report said. Congress has never allowed the program’s two trust funds to be depleted.
Medicare, to stay solvent for the next 75 years, would have to immediately raise payroll taxes by 24 percent, or cut current benefit payments by 17 percent, Cori Uccello, a senior health fellow with the American Academy of Actuaries in Washington, said in a phone interview.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-05-13/medicare-social-security-funds-expiring-sooner-u-s-says.html
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ORIGINAL: servantforuse
Brain and Defiant, Did you ever take math in high school ? There are fewer people paying into social security and more people taking money from social security. It is running out of money.
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