Quote:
Originally Posted by buckman
Can't we just level fund everything with no cuts and balance the budget over a period of time????
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Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding "no". Here's why. Many of these entitlements involve retirement pensions and healthcare benefits to folks after they retire. That program worked great 30 years ago, when there were (1) way more workers paying into the plan then retirees taking money out, (2) retirees who didn't live that long, and (3) manageable medical costs.
The math has all changed, thanks to...
(1) a demographic tsunami called the baby Boomers. Starting January 1, 2011 TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE A DAY will become eligible for social security and medicare. That trend will continue for almost 20 years. SO the ratio of workers to retirees is decreasing rapidly, menaing not enough money going in and way too much coming out.
(2) retirees are living much, much longer, menaing they will need a whole lot more money.
(3) medical costs are soaring. Consider this staggering fact. Half of all medical expenses are incurred in the last 6 months of the average person's life. It's hard to grasp how much money the baby boomers will spend on healthcare in retirement.
This is not a problem Obama created, he did inherit this one. But it's also fair to say that conservatives have been the predominant voice of concern about the coming implosion.
The latest estimates of unfunded liabilities for social security and medicare are in the tens of trillions. The average estimate that I've seen is $40 trillion dollars. There are 300 million people living in the US. That means that every American needs to kick in an extra $133,333 to make these programs viable.
Just think about that number for a second.
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