The biggest problem is how do you tell someone who has paid into this system (against their will) that they don't get paid? That is a bait and switch, I'd be angry as hell.
And indeed it is the medicaid and medicare that is crushing everything. Obamacare makes things ten times worse.
Have you ever heard the term "recreational doctor visits"?
I had to pull out my Economics book from Grad School because this is an amazing story that many people aren't aware of. When I use the term "recreational doctor visits" I'm called anti-elderly. I'll try and be short and sweet.
Here is the quote from the text book, "As a case in point, one Medicaid experiment in California required some beneficiaries to pay $1 per visit for their first two office visits per month (after two visits, the price of additional visits reverted to zero). A control group continued to receive free medical care. The $1 charge reduced office visits by 8 percent compared to the control group."
Now this was only a dollar co-pay yet in the group that had to pay the fee it reduced visits by 8%. Can you imagine if that fee was raised to say $5 or $10 for the first two visits? I bet that 8% would increase and not because granny can't afford it.
Here's the problem. Social Security is still self financing. Alas, the US government borrowed all the funds and wasted them on EPA, Labor Department, Education Department, loans to bankrupt solar power companies, building more federal buildings, community development block grants, foreign aid, ....... a gazillion other things that should have been paid out of the general revenues raised by taxes rather than by borrowing money from enemy aliens.
It’s going broke now because of the payroll tax cuts.
With 50 million seniors and 60 million total, it’s staying broke because of the increased seniors. There doesn’t have to be any commingling of funds to make SS broke. It’s broke on it’s own.