I've got a silly question.
Why doesn't anyone in America seem to care that we're lurching toward insolvency?
Or that the baby boom generation looted the treasure of the United States, at the expenses of all future generations?
One day soon we're going to have to face up to our problems, if we want to or not. And I can tell you one thing - Generation X and Generation Y are gonna be PISSED when they finally figure out what the baby boomers were up to (with their money).
The trustees who oversee Social Security and Medicare issued new warnings yesterday that the two programs are becoming unaffordable but pushed back slightly their predictions of when the crunch will hit.
By 2017, Social Security will pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes, the trustees said in their annual report. The program's trust fund is projected to be exhausted by 2041, one year later than estimated last year.
Medicare, which serves more than 43 million elderly and disabled people, is in worse shape, with its hospital insurance trust fund projected to be insolvent by 2019, trustees said. But that also was one year later than last year's forecast.
"Without change, rising costs will drive government spending to unprecedented levels, consume nearly all projected federal revenues, and threaten America's future prosperity," said Treasury Secretary
Henry M. Paulson, who serves on the six-member panel of trustees.
Over time, the programs are expected to consume a growing share of the federal budget. This year, about 7 percent of federal tax revenue goes toward paying Social Security and Medicare benefits. The figure is projected to climb to more than 10 percent by 2012, and 26 percent by 2020, said economist Thomas R. Saving, a trustee.
To keep the programs going, Congress and the president will have to increase taxes, reduce benefits or do both, the trustees said. "Without significant reform, these programs are not sustainable in the long run," Saving said.
