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Well, there's medicare, medicaid and social security. For SS, "bankrupt" is a little overblown. Adjust a percentage point or two for Social Security and it pr

by jbooth 15y ago

Well, there's medicare, medicaid and social security. For SS, "bankrupt" is a little overblown. Adjust a percentage point or two for Social Security and it projects to be fine for like 70 years. Assuming the feds pay back the money they've borrowed from the SS trust fund. (Man, remember that "lockbox" guy? What a dweeb.) Medicare is the big problem. And the problem is costs. The government's on the hook for the old, the poor, and the too sick to get insurance, and like I said, insurance and provider costs have been increasing by 15% a year or so. We need a better system of healthcare regardless of how the accounting is done.

adventureful 15y ago
Assuming the Feds pay back the stolen SS funds? In which quantum reality is that going to happen while the inbound SS funds are now in the red, while we run a $1.3x trillion deficit annually, and 10,000 new boomers retire each day for the next 15 to 20 years. America has at least $100 trillion in entitlement liabilities that can never be paid for under any circumstances. Which is why the Fed has begun to monetize as much of it away as they can without sparking massive inflation. That supposed point or two of adjustment is a purely fraudulent number from make-believe-land. SS is already bleeding out right now, prior to full scale boomer retirement. All of their accounting lies are premised on the Federal Reserve destroying your standard of living for the next 50 years to pay for the massive red ink that boomers are going to generate in SS.
orangecat 15y ago
Money is fungible, so any trust fund or lockbox is an accounting fiction. SS being "fine" is irrelevant if the rest of the budget runs huge deficits, especially if raising taxes isn't viable because Social Security's (regressive) taxes are already taking so much. Medicare is the big problem. And the problem is costs. Agreed. More specifically, the problem is aging. We should do something about that.

by jbooth 15y ago

adventureful 15y ago

Assuming the Feds pay back the stolen SS funds? In which quantum reality is that going to happen while the inbound SS funds are now in the red, while we run a $1.3x trillion deficit annually, and 10,000 new boomers retire each day for the next 15 to 20 years. America has at least $100 trillion in entitlement liabilities that can never be paid for under any circumstances. Which is why the Fed has begun to monetize as much of it away as they can without sparking massive inflation. That supposed point or two of adjustment is a purely fraudulent number from make-believe-land. SS is already bleeding out right now, prior to full scale boomer retirement. All of their accounting lies are premised on the Federal Reserve destroying your standard of living for the next 50 years to pay for the massive red ink that boomers are going to generate in SS.

orangecat 15y ago

Money is fungible, so any trust fund or lockbox is an accounting fiction. SS being "fine" is irrelevant if the rest of the budget runs huge deficits, especially if raising taxes isn't viable because Social Security's (regressive) taxes are already taking so much. Medicare is the big problem. And the problem is costs. Agreed. More specifically, the problem is aging. We should do something about that.