[Reagan69]

GOP needs to get out there NOW and tell the American people what BO has done to them... especially the senior citizens.

This is disgraceful.

[RFEngineer]

I take this report with a grain of salt. However, somebody isn’t going to get social security and no amount of whining and protesting will not change the fact that at some point, we don’t have the money to pay what people thought they’d get.

[556x45]

Not sure Id hold my breathe for that. The GOP seems pretty screwed up as well. To me this doesn’t seem like a dem/gop problem as much as a DC/rest of the country problem.

[kabar]

The US must reform the entitlement programs. They are unsustainable. SS will go permanently in the red in 2017, i.e., it will be paying out more than it is taking in. Medicare is already in the red. We have been cashing in the HI trust fund (Medicare Part A) IOUs since 2008. By 2014, 45% of all Medicare expenditures will come from the General Fund. By law, the General Fund pays 75% of the costs for Medicare Parts B and D. The revenue collected pays for only 25% of the costs.

I think the panel is a reflection of the lack of political leadership in this country, which cannot make the hard decisions. The politicians don't want to be held responsibile for the inevitable cuts in benefits and an increase in taxes.

A SUMMARY OF THE 2009 ANNUAL REPORTS Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees

[listenhillary]

We have done it to ourselves.

We kept voting in politicians promising government can do the fish and loves trick if we would only vote for them. It works until the bubbles pop.

[greeneyes]

It goes beyond that - a pox on all of them. I remember when they raised the contribution rate for social security over 30 years ago. This was supposed to ensure that there would be enough money to support the baby boom retirees. They also raised the age for full retirement.

For years, they collected more than was spent on social security and put it in the trust fund. They immediately wrote an IOU to the trust fund and spent the money.

They also continually found ways to let people who never paid in to social security to draw it -further undermining the system.

If they had let me invest even a portion of that money, I would not need their stupid social security anyway. Now they have essentially borrowed money to distribute to the fat cats, and they are going repay it on the backs of the poor and elderly.

Plenty of politicians from both parties have participated in this fiasco.