Free Republic

Social Security will spend more than it collects this year, the program’s trustees said Tuesday, marking the first time in more than 35 years that it will run an annual deficit as it slides toward insolvency by 2034. Medicare’s main trust fund is in even worse shape, scheduled to hit insolvency in 2026 — three years earlier than last year’s estimate, the trustees said. The twin warnings add even more pressure to a budget already strained by last year’s tax cuts and this year’s deal to boost spending on defense and basic domestic needs, leaving few bright spots in the...

London (dpa) - British astronaut Tim Peake has apologized for dialling the wrong number from space. "I'd like to apologise to the lady I just called by mistake saying 'Hello, is this planet Earth?' - not a prank call ... just a wrong number!" Peake posted on Twitter. Peake, 43, a former helicopter pilot, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on December 15. He was accompanied by American Tim Kopra, 52, and Russian Yury Malenchenko, 53. On Friday, the ISS passes over the Spanish-French border soon after sunset in England, Peake wrote on his blog. And stargazers are in...

It seems that with recent trends in economics, demographics, and morality in this country, there's great reason for much pessimism for the future. In any case, I'm curious to hear your predictions for 20 years from now. The state of USA? The world stage? Technology? Anything else you think it will be like in that year.