Didn't we have Medicare, Medicade, and Social Security the last time we had a balanced budget?

[chelsea0011]

It is not amusing to watch all the lies about the deficit. The only thing different are two wars, tax cuts, and millions out of work. It is not SS, Medicare, and Medicade.

[Fumesucker]

1. I don't believe we had any wars going at the time either..

Funny how that works, innit?

[ejpoeta]

2. you know you are right now that you mention it. funny how no one ever brings that up

when they are talking about the deficit. hmm. how odd.

[Hydra]

3. Elephant in the room

Along with the Bush/Obama tax cuts.

I just got done watching newshour on PBS though- they are VERY convincing about how social programs are a black hole that benefit nobody, but we need the DoD to keep spending trillions torturing people for our safety.

[ejpoeta]

9. how odd that a program that we pay into and get out of is a black hole

yet this big MIC that seems to just take more and more endless money is necessary is not.... hmmm...

[dkf]

4. Those are the drivers of the future budget breakers. That is why we are talking about raising el

Eligibility years from now. Or we could simply cut benefits as the receipts can't pay for the benefits.

If so then anticipate a 25% cut in your social security check In 2036 and a 10% cut in medicare benefits in 2024 increasing to a 25% cut by 2045.

So really this is just an early notice. It could be fixed so that it wouldn't suddenly collapse at those dates but everyone screaming "don't touch my social security/Medicare" will prevent that.

So be it.

[chelsea0011]

8. Pelosi is right, though, that these programs should be dealt with as separate items

[dkf]

11. You really think they will?

I doubt it actually. These politicians don't have the guts to make hard choices.

[chelsea0011]

13. Oh no. Certainly not now.

[starroute]

5. There is one other thing that is different

The more impoverished the American people become, the less that is paid into Social Security and Medicare. When someone loses a job, they're no longer paying in. When someone loses a $60,000 job and accepts one for $30,000 instead, they're only paying in half as much.

And meanwhile, the money is flowing to the rich, who don't pay an extra penny into Social Security because they're already over the cap. (They do pay more into Medicare, but out of the total FICA deduction of 7.65%, that only accounts for 1.45%, while Social Security accounts for 6.2%.)

So the more unequal our country becomes, the more strain it puts on the system. But it's not that the payments out have suddenly become too great -- it's that the payments in have become too small.

[The Gunslinger]

6. We now have two Bush wars, and Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.

And a "Democratic" president who could have ended them.

[JHB]

10. +1

[alc]

7. SS had a surplus then

It was contributing to the general budget ($200 billion/year if I remember right, and in ways that would put a CFO in jail if they tried to fudge books that way). Now SS needs $40 billion this year and more in years to come because revenue doesn't cover benefits.

Medicare revenue/payment balance has also gotten worse.

The wars are the biggest issue but we need to be honest about the details.

[mmonk]

12. Of course. To have them in the deficit conversation simply means

one is dishonest in their framing and doesn't believe the people's money should be spent on the people and their wellbeing.