Social Security and Medicare still face serious financial challenges, annual review says

[Raggz]

Source: LA Times

Social Security and Medicare continue to face grave financial challenges even though the new healthcare law may provide added stability to the two massive programs, according to the government's annual review.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-social-security-20100806,0,4104602.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29

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We have ignored Social Security and Medicare for FAR too long.

[laughingliberal]

1. Right. An article full of quotes from RW Republicans. Unrec. nt

[marmar]

2. Not the least of which are constant disinformation and scary stories......

nt

[ProSense]

3. That's a really negative take on

positive report, especially on Medicare.

Krugman.

[DJ13]

4. What Social Security Report Says vs. What They Tell You It Says

The Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees today released their report on the Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs. Here is what it says:

Social Security Just Fine Until At Least 2037

The summary of the report says, "The financial outlook for Social Security is little changed from last year. The short term outlook is worsened by a deeper recession than was projected last year, but the overall 75-year outlook is nevertheless somewhat improved..." and is otherwise fine until at least 2037 with no changes.

It is just fine forever, in fact, if we do something simple like raise the "cap" on earnings that are taxed to pay for the program. (That's right, when you make more than a certain income level you stop paying the tax!) Compare that to the military budget. We spend more than $1 trillion on military and related programs each year -- more than every other country combined -- and unlike Social Security that is completely "unfunded," and adds to the deficit.

Medicare Outlook Improved Substantially

The report also says, "The outlook for Medicare has improved substantially because of program changes made in the (Health Care Reform Bill)"

Those Are The Facts

Those are the simple facts: everything is fine. Everything will be fine. There are some things that should be changed to make them even more OK than they are. They are good programs that demonstrate that government works....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/what-social-security-repo_b_672225.html?ir=Politics

[Skink]

9. Yeah Social security is solvent for the rest of W's life.

[Rage for Order]

5. Perhaps the government should stop raiding Social Security...

to bolster the general fund. If they'd left the SS money alone for the past few decades we'd have a nice big nest egg sitting in the bank. Here's an idea: next time the government wants to transfer $700 billion to Wall Street, deposit those funds into the SS trust fund instead. Then get back to me and tell me how broke SS is.

[caledesi]

6. Fear doesn't work here at DU! nt

[defendandprotect]

7. My first UN-REC . . . Social Security is sound through the year 2038 . . . .

and runs huge surplusses every years -- hundreds of billions of dollars!

[thelordofhell]

8. Absolute right-wing propaganda crap

What's a freeper article doing on DU?

[Lugnut]

10. Bull. Shit! n/t

[Bitwit1234]

11. I have an email alert from Social Security

they send me an email with a link to updated news. They say social security is solvent til 2037.

[Kingofalldems]

12. We?

It's finally coming out.