Posted on 07/23/2004 2:33:35 PM PDT by mft112345
A 72-trillion-pound elephant is in the room and we have a patriotic duty to acknowledge him before he devours our economy, crushes the quality of our health care and destroys our retirement security.
According to the 2004 Social Security Trustees report the unfunded long-term obligations of Social Security and Medicare amount to $72 trillion. The total bill for current and future taxpayers breaks down as follows: $21.8 trillion from Medicare Part A; 23.2 trillion from Medicare Part B; $16.6 trillion from the new Medicare prescription drug benefit; and $10.4 trillion from Social Security.
It's highly unlikely that either party will mention the $72 trillion figure in any of their 30-second-sound bytes, because there is no immediate political gain in raising the issue.
To put $72 trillion into perspective: On July 15, at a luncheon event in the Rayburn House Office Building of the U.S. Capitol, Social Security Trustee Thomas R. Saving told an audience that Congress would have to devote "73 percent of all income taxes from now until eternity" in order to pay for the two entitlement programs.
Repeating a warning from the 2004 Social Security Trustees report, Saving said these two programs are expected to consume 1/4 of all federal income taxes by 2019, and added that he doesn't expect Congress or the American people to allow this to happen. When I questioned him after his talk, he told me that he believes tax increases are inevitable if America decides to pay for these entitlements as they exist now.
Referencing the former Soviet Union, he questioned whether Americans would still be willing to work under the future tax burden. Jokingly, I asked him whether it was time to move to a different country, and he said every country is facing similar demographic problems.
America's patients, retirees and taxpayers can't afford to wait 15 years before politicians are brave and honest enough to confront this crisis. Voters ought to ask politicians to propose fair, reasonable and specific solutions to this $72 trillion dilemma.
Social Security private accounts are a necessary -- but small -- step towards fixing this problem. These individual accounts would not address the debt from the retirees who are in the system now or the 70 million baby boomers who might retire before Congress agrees to allow these accounts. As mentioned earlier, projected Social Security spending only accounts for $10.4 trillion, with more than $60 trillion coming from projected Medicare spending.
We should use any and every opportunity to ask candidates and office holders to discuss the $72 trillion figure mentioned in the Trustee's report. Political candidates should not be allowed to gloss over this issue, simply because it's a sensitive subject in an election year. America's taxpayers, patients and retirees can't afford to give them this luxury.
Minimally, the retirement age should be raised 1 year every 5 years for the next 25 years.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, roughly $400 billion over ten years. Trustees say the new permanent entitlement will cost $16.6 trillion.
Ping!
Try $ 534 billion over ten years - only God knows the ultimate cost for this boondoggle.
Gen X & Y are just gonna have to suck it up.
And the Democrats chastised him for spending too little. They wanted to pass a $800B plan. Heaven help us.
A left wing Republican can't out-pander a Democrat
That scenario might work out OK for those of us who have recently purchased over-priced homes in California. We live in the San Francisco bay area, and have a huge mortgage at a fixed interest rate.
Good point... Bush did not turn the vote of one single elderly Democrat on this... His sudden drop in the polls after Saddam's capture followed right after his amnesty & prescription drug plan... coincidence?
"Try $ 534 billion over ten years - only God knows the ultimate cost for this boondoggle."
Instead of working to eliminate Medicare, the added benefit package that he worked so hard to get passes is more than enough, without the rest of his socialistic adjenda, to get him thrown out of office.
Ummm, that wasn't the reason for the program.
If our friends in Washington would simply take 15% of our wages, (the same 15% there taking now) and allow them to be invested into a mutual fund, there would be no need for social security. (Mutual funds average 12% over time, of course the Dims will whine and complain every time it goes down)
The new influx of cash would be HUGE for the market.
If you earn $ 48,000 / year, and invest $ 600 / month from age 40, then you will retire with 1.1 million, and you can live off the $ 11,000 monthly interest.
If you do that from age 20, the results are STUNNING, you retire with 10 million.
This is the same $ 600 / month the gov takes from you, and returns about $ 1000 / month and you have no principle.
Let me invest my own $$$ and I won't need or want SS.
what was, then? Bush may be more upstanding than the Democrats, but in the end, he is still a politician...
I've actually seen (a few) FReepers implying that the taxpayers owe the moolah to those who steal, squander, and otherwise consume it.
Retirement and health care are not entitlements. If only the GOP agreed.
< SNIP >
A March 2 Wall Street Journal report said these six big corporations alone will be receiving $2.5 billion in taxpayer subsidies (in millions): BellSouth ($572), Delphi ($500), U.S. Steel ($500), American Airlines ($450), John Deere ($300-$400), and Alcoa ($190).
I think it's more like the stage between dependency (food stamps, rent vouchers, WIC, etc.) and bondage (taxes, codes, ordinances, permits, licenses, etc). Only to get worse as time goes on.
Only they tend not to pay in. How many "contract laborers" hired by the factories are paid under the table so never pay in a dime --- but will collect plenty of our retirement dollars by claiming to have used a stolen Social Security number?
Whose pocket does it come out of?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.