The 11 million Americans who receive Social Security disability face steep benefit cuts next year, the government said Wednesday, handing lawmakers a fiscal and political crisis in the middle of a presidential campaign.How might Congress act, you ask?
The trustees who oversee Social Security and Medicare said the disability trust fund will run out of money in late 2016. That would trigger an automatic 19 percent cut in benefits, unless Congress acts.
There is an easy fix available for the disability program: Congress could shift tax revenue from Social Security's much larger retirement fund, as it has done in the past.So how long will the retirement fund last under the current setup?
President Barack Obama supports the move. And acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin said shifting the tax revenue "would have no adverse effect on the solvency of the overall Social Security program."
The trustees said Social Security's retirement fund has enough money to pay full benefits until 2035, a year later than they predicted last year. At that point, Social Security will collect enough in payroll taxes to pay about 75 percent of benefits.But if the gubmint moves money from that fund to cover the shortfall in the disability fund, would the money really last until 2035? The article says it only changes the number to 2034. That's still less than 20 years from now.
Meanwhile, there's this nugget:
Medicare's giant hospital trust fund is projected to be exhausted in 2030, the same date as last year's report. At that point, Medicare taxes would be enough to pay 86 percent of benefits.The hour is growing short. But let's talk about gay marriage and Donald Trump.
2 comments:
Yes, we can drain a trust fund and not endanger its solvency....I'm sorry, but you don't need to pass a few actuarial exams to figure out that statement is horse scat. It would be really, really nice if Ms. Colvin was either laughed out of the room, or a resounding chorus of "bull****" started for that one.
You want to fix SS disability, you've got to make it an on ramp, allowing the disabled to earn as much as they like and simply decreasing the payments they receive, instead of a prison, where if they earn a penny too much they lose their benefits. Should my paraplegic friend lose his safety net--he has no realistic prospects of ever walking again--because he does something useful for society?
bubba is absolutely correct. i say make it a 4-1 option. you lose a dollar for every four you earn (and pay taxes on). it would encourage productivity.
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