The chattering class is busy chatting up another dire emergency ... someday,
If we don't cut back on these Earned Retirement programs NOW -- they quickly admonish their fearful audience ...
Social Security heading for insolvency even faster
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Social Security is rushing even faster toward insolvency, driven by retiring baby boomers, a weak economy and politicians' reluctance to take painful action to fix the huge retirement and disability program.
The trust funds that support Social Security will run dry in 2033 — three years earlier than previously projected — the government said Monday.
There was no change in the year that Medicare's hospital insurance fund is projected to run out of money. It's still 2024. The program's trustees, however, said the pace of Medicare spending continues to accelerate. Congress enacted a 2 percent cut for Medicare last year, and that is the main reason the trust fund exhaustion date did not advance.
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Oh Noes! All those payroll taxes, dutifully paid over a lifetime,
used borrowed to fund Wars and Tax Cuts for the Rich
-- just MIGHT have to be paid back some day! Oh the horrors!
Psst! General Fund managers, that's why they're called Trust Fund I.O.Us ...
Here's an idea -- one that solves the Social Security problem -- without cutting our Earned Benefits:
Raise the Payroll Tax Ceiling.
If Millionaires weren't excluded from paying this minuscule tax -- that problem would be instantly solved. Abracadraba!
Try talking about that solution, chattering mad-hatters.
Here's another idea -- one that solves the Medicare problem -- without sacrificing the well-being of seniors, who actually built this country:
Establish a "single payer" Public Option choice for Health Care.
If the Profit-motive were taken our of the Health=Humanity equation -- that looming problem would eventually be solved too. Market forces, you know.
Even a 20% profit-margin cap for Insurance Company CEOs is TOO MUCH, when it comes to life & death -- especially when the same publicly-provided service can operate on 2% overhead margins -- to stay in the business of healing and insuring well-being.
How about some hyper-venting on that, chattering ad-machine panic-promoters ...
How about some adult conversations on the eventual possibility of Medicare-for-All ???
(as Robert Reich explains.)
What "service" do Health Insurance Companies actually provide, anyways?
Refusing to pay bills ... detailed listing of exclusions, rising co-pays, and ever-increasing payroll deductions?
Some service! There's the real horror ... life and death meted out by the ability to pay.
Sorry, you lose. Maybe you shouldn't have gotten sick, eh?
Maybe you shouldn't have expected your payroll taxes to actually be there -- when you need them ... ?
Afterall that would depend on electing a Congress, dedicated to actually protecting the people's long term interests ... and who in their right mind, would bet on that!?