china to dump 1 trillion in us dollars!, page 3

Originally posted by crisko
Social Security is not an unfunded liability - every worker in America aside from a few groups are required to pay taxes into it. - it has made money year after year; it's the soon to be (retired) baby boomer's that hurt the system.

In each year since 1982, OASDI tax receipts, interest payments and other income have exceeded benefit payments and other expenditures, most recently (in 2004) by more than $150 billion. [26] As the "baby boomers" move out of the work force and into retirement, however, it is anticipated that expenses will come to exceed Social Security tax revenues if there are no changes in current law concerning taxes, benefits, and the retirement age.

So what happens as they retire?

According to most projections, the Social Security trust fund will begin drawing on its Treasury Notes toward the end of the next decade (around 2018 or 2019), at which time the repayment of these notes will have to be financed from the general fund. At some time thereafter, variously estimated as 2041 (by the Social Security Administration) or 2052 (by the Congressional Budget Office), the Social Security Trust Fund will have exhausted the claim on general revenues that had been built up during the years of surplus. At that point, current Social Security tax receipts would be sufficient to fund 74 or 78% of the promised benefits, according to the two respective projections.

There are two views to this; lets start with the "ZOMG THE SKY IS FALLING" side of the coin.

Now this is a very big problem indeed - how do we fix it? Can we fix it? Yes we can - and it would hurt - a lot. There are multiple solutions - all of thing would leave working class America zinged - they economy would slow but not crash. Basically - we would become more like Europe.

• All federal taxes would have to double immediately and permanently. A household earning $100,000 a year would see its federal taxes double from an average of about $20,000 to $40,000 a year. All state taxes would have to increase 20% immediately and permanently.

• Or, benefits for Social Security, Medicare and government pensions would have to be slashed in half immediately and permanently. Social Security checks would be cut from an average of $1,500 per month for couples to $750. Military pensions would drop from an average of $1,782 per month to $891. Medicare spending would fall from $7,500 to $3,750 annually per senior. The Medicare prescription-drug benefit enacted last year would be canceled.

•Or, a combination of tax hikes and benefit cuts — such as a 50% increase in taxes and a 25% reduction in benefits — would avoid the extremes but still require painful changes that are outside the scope of today's political debate. Savings also could come in the form of price controls on prescription drugs, raising retirement ages and limiting benefits to the affluent.

Now lets look at the views of one optimist:

Economist James Galbraith of the University of Texas in Austin is a rare optimist in this debate. "I'm not at all concerned about Medicare or Social Security," Galbraith says. "Unless the government goes broke, Medicare isn't going to go broke, and the U.S. government isn't going to go broke because it can print money."

Galbraith says the country can handle higher tax rates, as Europeans do, and can save money by cutting spending elsewhere, such as on defense, and by implementing a Canadian-style health care system that uses private doctors and hospitals but has the government set prices and pay the bills.

Your tone is to alarmist, and you make it sound as if Bush created the social security system. He didn't - he is a War Time President - you can bash him for that - but you cannot blame (or give credit) him for Social Security.

[edit on 25-12-2006 by crisko]

So lets get this straight, you want a Canadian styled Health Care System where the majority of your Doctors come from third world countries cause the Canadian Doctors went to the U.s. for more money, you want a system where the province pays 75% and the Feds pay 25% of the cost, you want to use out dated broken equipment and get put on a waiting list in which you'll probably die before you get treatment in a system where Health Canada takes bribes from Big Pharma to push pills that cause the need for more pills.

Then you want to turn your economy into that of Frances, oh yeah nothing like all out & out socialism where you rob people who work to pay leeches & welfare recepients hand outs to get votes. Nothing like cars burning in the streets for months at a time, or 20% unemployment.