Economists have long projected that the Social Security fund would run out of money by 2037. The political dynamics have caused a speed-up in those projections as this year will mark the first time payouts will exceed collections. Spending on Social Security and Medicare totaled more than $1 trillion last year, accounting for more than one-third of the federal budget, according to this NY Times report.
While the population is aging, unemployment has surged to 10 percent. Yet Barack Obama continues to establish costly new social and bailout programs, compelling participation in federally instituted medical care and ignoring the national debt which has become so mammoth that the interest on it alone will reach $700 billion a year by 2019.
Since the recession began 5.7 million Americans have lost their jobs, resulting in unprecedented home foreclosures. With fewer people working, the government collects less in payroll taxes, a major source of financing for Medicare and Social Security. The obvious answer is cutting benefits and increasing taxes on the already overburdened American citizens.
The United States is marching to insolvency while the Naked Emperor Obama continues his socialized spending spree.
Right about now, we could sure use those keys to Al Gore’s famous “Social Security Lock Box,” where he assured us the money would remain untouched.
Seeing Red AZ 
Al Gore was(and is) a fool, albeit a very cunning one. But everyone knew the “lock box” was bull, even at the time. Future recipients will be older when they start receiving funds and they will get less. The younger people who are paying the freight will, unfortunately get nothing. Their children and grandchildren will be so heavily burdened that I can’t envision any fix. And next, he wants to open the floodgates to illegals in order to swell the Democrat ranks. That “Hope and Change” is coming at a very heavy price.
Social Security was never intended to be what it has become. It was doomed to fail. When a good portion of the recipients have received many times what they ever paid in, it could never sustain itself. Many of the elderly who are getting payments were employed during the depression years and making $25 dollars a week. They get hundreds each month and have lived longer lives than when the system was first conceived. The reason 65 was put in place as a retirement age was that the average life expectancy was 66! We’ve come a long way since those days, but there was no way this could last. Today, you can get Social Security if you claim ADHD! It’s become a ridiculous gravy train for far too many and our kids — who will never receive a dime — are footing the bill for these excesses.
Big surprise- people lose their jobs and there are less payments being made into the system! On top of that, the idiot Dems want amnesty which will add millions more to the Social Security rolls. Who cares if some illegals paid into the system? Many never did as they were paid under the table and still are to this day. If they did, it’s little enough compensation for the billions spent on their kids educations, their medical needs and more. Not to mention the cost of printing everything in Spanish as well as English- including ballots!
Social Security has $2.5 trillion in government bonds, it is not insolvent.
I agree with Hometown Guy in all ways except one. Al Gore is not a fool, he is a 100% Socialist that wants to destroy America. There are many fools who follow his lead, but he is very aware of his treasonous actions, as much as Benedict Arnold was.