Social Security will be unable to pay full benefits a year earlier than previously projected, while Medicare’s insolvency date remains just five years away, according to the latest trustee reports. But nobody in the nation’s capital is stepping up with proposals to fix the two largest federal entitlement programs. Between them, Social Security and Medicare consume nearly $2 trillion annually to pay retirement and hospitalization benefits depended upon by millions of Americans. Those benefits consume 29 percent of all federal spending, according to USASpending.gov. The cost of benefits are rising faster than the available funds to cover them—tax revenues, individual premiums and trust funds—with the result that, absent any reforms, Medicare insolvency is projected for 2026 and Social Security’s for 2033, according to the reports made public Aug. 31. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) released a statement Wednesday about the dire fiscal conditions of the two programs. “According …
Officials Agree Social Security, Medicare Are in Deep Trouble, but Solutions Mean Tough Choices
September 1, 2021
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