Political Quotes

“Last Friday, the Social Security trustees' report and the Medicare trustees' report were both released. They showed that as large as our debt and deficits are now, without tackling these two entitlements, our future debts and deficits will dwarf current levels. In fact, this year alone, Medicare is running a cashflow deficit of more than $32 billion. This is the largest deficit ever for this program. Likewise, Social Security will run a cashflow deficit of $46 billion this year. This requires the Treasury to finance these programs through additional borrowing, adding even more to our deficit. In total, Social Security faces a $6.5 trillion unfunded liability. The reason for this, according to the report, is the aging of our society. As we live longer and as the size of families has decreased, the number of workers financing benefits has steadily decreased. For example, in 1950 there were 16\1/2\ workers for every Social Security recipient and life expectancy was 69 years old. By 1960, the number of workers supporting each recipient was just half of what it was 10 years before. Now there are fewer than three workers for each beneficiary. By 2040, it will be just over two. Around the same time, in 2036, Social Security's trust fund will run out of all of the IOUs the government has issued to it. After this point, Social Security will be able to pay just over 75 percent of the current benefits.…”