I agree that the liabilities can never be fully funded. But the programs can at least be put on firmer ground than they are today. Thanks to Dubya's "stewardship," we missed an excellent opportunity to do that back in 2001, when people were predicting "surpluses as far as the eye can see." The only reason those "surpluses" were there was because Dubya's wunnerful advisers were counting the SS surpluses that were designed to be there in the contemporary budget. To be fair to his administration (despite their not being fair to anyone), the Clinton admin did the same thing, which is how they arrived at their budget surplus. However, the brute fact is, it was Dubya's admin that squandered that planned for surplus on tax cuts.
But we can't allow that to happen on this next go around, it will give the publi-cons the excuse they crave to "return the money to the people," lol.
The fact is, once the baby boomers die off, SS and Medicare should be on fine footing. In fact, then the Cons should be able to legitimately cut payroll and Medicare tax rates, because there won't be that population bulge that ages all at once and there will be more workers per elderly person to pay for those programs. Not trying to be gruesome or anything, but--we may just get some sort of MRSA-like infectious disease around 2030 or so that will disproportionately affect the elderly and have beneficial budgetary effects. |
