Annual report due for Social Security and Medicare
A year ago, the trustees projected that the Social Security trust fund would start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2017 and that the trust fund would be depleted in 2041.
For the Medicare trust fund, which pays for hospital care, the situation was more urgent. It was projected to start paying more in benefits than it collects in taxes within a year, and the trustees forecast that it would be depleted by 2019.
But many analysts said the worst recession in decades will produce a bleaker forecast for both Social Security and Medicare in the new trustees’ report. The downturn has resulted in a loss of 5.7 million payroll jobs since it began in December 2007 and an unemployment rate that hit a 25-year high of 8.9 percent in April.
The one thing the government can do beter than the banks if borrow or print money. Some people think that’s a good thing. My word of warning is “be careful what you wish for”.
