Posted on 07/03/2011 4:03:53 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
One of my earliest memories of revulsion against war came from seeing a photograph from the First World War when I was a teenager. It was nothing gory. Just a picture of a military officer, in an impressive uniform, talking to a puzzled and forlorn-looking old peasant woman with a cloth wrapped around her head.
He said simply: “Don’t you understand, madam? The village is not there any more.”
To many such people of that era, the village was the only world they knew. And to say that it had been destroyed in the carnage of war was to say that there was no way for them to go back home, that their whole world was gone.
Recently that image came back, in a wholly different context, while seeing pictures of American seniors carrying signs that read “Hands off my Social Security” and “Hands off my Medicare.”
They want their Social Security and their Medicare to stay the way they are — and their anger is directed against those who want to change the financial arrangements that pay for these benefits.
Their anger should be directed instead against those politicians who were irresponsible enough to set up these costly programs without putting aside enough money to pay for the promises that were made — promises that now cannot be kept, regardless of which political party controls the government.
Someone needs to say to those who want Social Security and Medicare to continue on unchanged: “Don’t you understand? The money is not there any more.”
(Excerpt) Read more at newhampshire.com ...
Agreed. End it.
And what is driving that hole? Take a look at expenditures and revenue. Do you know that by law, 75% of Medicare Parts B and D must come from the General Fund. The projected expenditures for those two programs in FY-2011 are $295 billion. 75% of the costs are paid by the General Fund.
And Medicare Part A (HI Trust Fund) has already started redeeming its IOUs since 2008, which means the General Fund must come up with $263 billion to pay benefits minus the current $229 billion in revenues. This shortfall will increase as the baby boomers retire, i.e., 10,000 a day from now until 2030. And the situation becomes worse as medical costs continue to increase.
Medicare already spends more than it receives in dedicated taxes and premium payments. As baby boomer retirees begin to flood the system, the impact will be felt by every other federal program:
• Currently, Medicare claims about 11 percent of federal nonentitlement tax dollars.
• By 2020, Medicare deficits will claim one in every five federal tax dollars that are not already dedicated to Medicare and Social Security.
• This means that in just 13 years the federal government will have to stop doing one in every five things it does today if taxes are to remain at their current level and projected Medicare benefits are paid on behalf of the disabled and the elderly.
• By 2030, the deficits in Medicare will claim one in every three general revenue dollars; by 2050, they will claim one in every two.
Starting in 2010, Social Security began to permanently spend more than it takes in. From now on, Social Security will require large and growing amounts of general revenue money in order to pay all of its promised benefits. Even though this money will come technically from cashing in the special-issue bonds in the trust fund, the money to repay those bonds will come from other tax collections or borrowing. The billions that go to Social Security each year will make it harder to find money for other government programs or will require large and growing tax increases.
Compared to 2010, 2036—the year that the Social Security trust fund is projected to run out of its special-issue bonds—is of little importance. Even though the end of those bonds will make it necessary to reduce benefits by approximately 25 percent, Congress will have been paying about $250 billion a year (in 2011 dollars) to repay those bonds for about seven years by the time the trust fund runs out. Congress will have to do this through some combination of other spending cuts, new taxes, or additional borrowing. These are the same choices Congress would face without the trust fund.
This is more or less how Herman Cain put it at the last debate, that it was our grandchildren going off a cliff instead.
Maybe someday, a politician will ahve the balls to stand up and say:
“Yes, it’s broke. Yes, it sucks...and no, there’s nothing we can do. Tough sh*t. Should’ve voted for better leaders back in the 60s and 70s.”
But it is still intergenerational theft. I would favor confiscating the assets of every politician who voted to continue SS, etc., to compensate those who have paid th etax, but it wouldn’t be enough to matter and, more to the point, it would never happen.
You're worried about ten, twenty, forty years from now?
If we don't put a stop to the nearly-two-trillion-dollars we're spending every year that we don't have, we will envy the Weimar Republic before 2020.
FYI, I’m very nearly SS age.
“Contributions” to the government made at the point of a bayonet or under threat of prison are taxes. I think you know that nobody “contributed” anything. A contribution is a voluntary act.
The only people deceived by the “paid in”, “trust fund”, “contributions” language were those who wanted to be taken in, didn’t want to find out, or resided on the left hand side of the IQ Bell Curve.
The taxes that you paid that were transferred to my grandparents - only two of which ever collected anything - do not justify continued intergenerational theft. Moreover, the SS taxes that the current generation pays and that the next generation would pay if the system were to survive are vastly more than you paid and will be much more than I will have paid when I finish making my “contributions”.
The problem is exactly the attitude the FDR knew he was creating - an attitude of entitlement to other people’s money. Your post is evidence that we lack the character to save ourselves.
Yep. The songwriter had it nailed: youth is wasted on the young.
I think you should review the graphs I provided again. The entitlement programs plus Medicaid and other mandatories make up almost half the budget. And it is more than half when you add debt servicing costs. Our deficits are being driven by the welfare state and an aging society. As Ryan has said many times, health care costs are driving our growing deficits and the national debt. We can’t afford the promises made. SS is permanently in the red, so is Medicare.
Balderdash!! We STILL work and pay income taxes at 68 & 65. Go ye and do likewise. Hop to it; quit standing in arrogant ignorance over us “elders”, bawling, bleating, making sweeping arrogant accusations, predicting a gloomy and defeatist future instead of working to correct things while they still may be corrected. Encourage those you know on welfare to get to work instead of on welfare, vote conservative. Do something instead of bashing senior citizens. But, NO! You keep condemning and splitting hairs. Your post exhibits poor character and a thick head.
I know it is impossible. I am just saying that framing it up this way shows that a person is not trying to be a taker, just wants what they put in and not the “more” that most end up getting because of living a long time. I am addressing the resentment aspect more than the fiscal/fixing aspect about which I have no idea.
The only means test that matters is that I paid more when I earned more. No means testing - and that means lower payback for everyone. So be it. How about we sell some federal land?
You are posting on a subject you either don’t understand or that you refuse to understand.
Not one word of your latest post has anything to do with the issue. The post does, however, underscore my prediction. People like you make it absolutely impossible to fix this country’s financial situation, not because you don’t work, but because you refuse to rise above your self-interest. Unfortunately, you have lots of company. This is exactly what FDR predicted.
Don’t worry, though. You will continue to do reasonably well financially for the relatively few years the SS and Medicare charades will be able to continue as they are. The ones whose futures are being thoroughly destroyed by these programs (and others) are your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren.
would you have us beg on the streets?...we don't have any fancy pensions...
you bet I expect to get my contributions back plus more....
its totally unfair because we have STILL many elderly that never worked a real job who get SS, illegals getting SS, and Medicaid, and the so-called "disabled" who are pulling in fat SS checks...( I know really disabled people and this is not meant to disparage them...they need the disability money and deserve it)
its enormously tough for younger people today...thats' why I believe in the old ways.....seeing to it that your family is taken care of as much as you can...
Ryan's right; the bulk of the problem right now is medical costs. Your post #12, however, creates the impression you think Social Security is the big problem right now; it's not.
It ultimately needs to have a stake driven through its heart, but right now it's a minor problem.
“so what would YOU do to people that have worked 45 yrs and paid SS?......that’s my husbands case.....and mine is a good 38 yrs...”
You bother saving any of money from your paychecks for retirement during your combined 83 working years? That’s quite a bit of time to build up an even a modest nest egg.
There are 54 million on SS and it is now permanently in the red. The debate about whether Social Security faces a problem is over. The 2011 trustees report shows that the program already faces massive permanent annual deficits. In 2010, Social Security spent $49 billion more in benefits than it took in from its payroll tax. This year, that deficit will be approximately $46 billion. Now is the time to focus on solutions.
After adjusting for inflation, annual deficits will reach $81.5 billion in 2020, $288.4 billion in 2030, and $343.6 billion in 2035.
In FY 2010 we spent $3.5 trillion and took in $2.2 trillion. How do you propose we balance the budget any time soon?
I don’t have a pension either. If you expect to get your “contributions” back plus more, you are simply saying you want to have the government act as your agent to steal from others. You obviously expect the government to take care of you.
GET BUSY AND FIX IT. I understand the Ponzi scheme, probably as well as or maybe better than you & I AM WILLING TO DO MY PART TO FIX IT!!! NOW, TODAY!!
You make broad assertions to accuse ME of selfishness when YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW ME, refuse to answer the questions presented, such as “What are YOU doing to fix the problem??!” - and attack, attack, attack. If FDR was such a good predicter, WHY was he such an enthusiastic SOCIALIST?? Why did he not comprehend the scope of his Ponzi scheme?
Quit screaming that I’M “selfish” and stupid, and do something constructive. We’re still working. What are YOU doing? Sounds like just carping to me. (Yes! It’s gotta be FIXED! If you insist on keeping on voting for Obama, he’s just gonna keep on “spreading the wealth around”.)
You’re 21 and your screen name is “OldPossum”?
Heh. Heh. Heh. Heh. Making fun of the best junk food in the world is not nice.
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