Social Security reform can’t wait.
If you are at the age when you are planning for retirement, consider this: Unless something changes, it is entirely possible the Social Security program will be insolvent while you still need help from it.
Trustees of the Social Security program reported recently that, at current rates and trends, the system will be flat broke by 2033. That is three years earlier than predicted in the last trustees’ report.
An even grimmer outlook faces the Social Security program providing benefits to the disabled. It will run out of money by 2016 — just four years from now, the trustees warned. That will not actually happen because federal officials will do what they have in the past to shore up the disability program. They will use money from the old-age benefits system — and that may force it into insolvency even sooner than 2033.
Social Security’s health has been the topic of discussion in Congress for decades. But, under both Republican and Democratic presidents and congresses, nothing substantive has been done.
The longer reforms are delayed, the more difficult it will be to get Social Security back under control. No one even wants to talk about the issue, because of the upcoming November elections.
But action is needed — and soon.
The Messenger, Fort Dodge, Iowa (May 10)
Shame on the BDN for printing this pack of prevarications. The entire “sky is falling” story about Social Security is created by bankers who want nothing more than to destroy social security in order to fatten their own already overstuffed larders.
Fact: Social Security is the most popular government program ever.
Fact: The Social Security trust fund is forecast to START paying out more than it takes in in 2018 or 2019.
Fact: If we eliminate the payroll tax ceiling, Social Security will remain solvent in perpetuity with a lowering of the retirement age and a raise in benefits.
Opinion: The Social Security trust fund will go broke when the U.S. Government defaults on its promise to repay the bonds they gave the trust fund when they “borrowed” the investment that we the taxpayers invested in it. This will be the biggest fraud ever pulled.
http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/trustee11-pr.htm
Hurummph!!
Fact: for the federal government to make good on its promise, it will have to raise the cash.
Fact: we are in a HUGE budget hole already.
Fact: of course the government “borrowed” from the trust fund: the trust fund bought government bonds!!!
Whether it’s considered a sacred cow or not, social security is a real liability that will impact the overall budget, just like Medicare.
PS: agree with eliminating the limit and rolling it into a general fund program, ending the charade that somehow the funds are being saved. In reality, the trust fund was a scam to raise taxes without having to say taxes were being raised (because it was supposedly being saved). Great trick…