Social Security Trust Fund to be Depleted in 2035; Agency Will No Longer Be Able to Pay Full Benefits Beginning That Year

Well, the public had a choice between acting to fix this or letting it fester into an emergency and letting groups -- old people expecting full benefits, and young people not wanting to be taxed more -- fight it out when the emergency came.

We chose the latter.

We'll have to see how that works out for everybody.

Social Security's Opens a New Window. reserve funds are expected to be depleted in 2035, at which time the program will no longer be able to pay out benefits in full.

That's according to the annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released on Monday, which said total costs of the program, which covers the old age and disability insurance programs, will exceed income in 2020 -- for the first time since 1982. That's two years later than projected last year, but means the program will have to dip into its reserves to cover benefits at that time.

I think a political bet was made in resisting a small change to Social Security: That, when the Trust Fund dried up and the options became reducing payments or increasing taxes on current workers, the mix of voters would be more favorably inclined to increase taxes on workers to uphold the promises the government made to retirees.

Every year that goes by, that looks like a worse and worse bet. Younger voters seem to hold their elders in contempt, and already have their own demands for government dollars, like free college education attendance, for example.

Derek Hunter writes about the ginned-up "student loan crisis" -- the media's and Democrats' (but I repeat myself) use of the word "crisis" is battlespace preparation for the notion that Something Must Be Done!, and that something involves a massive wealth-transfer from people who didn't go to college or who went to college long ago to people who are going to college now or went a short while ago.

He watched CNN's five hours of town halls with Democrat Socialists on Monday, and here's his after-inaction report.

A day after more than 300 people were killed in a terrorist attack because of their faith, I don't remember a single question or statement from anyone about it. There were, however, a lot of questions about student loans.

Judging by the amount of coverage student loan debt has gotten this year, you’d think there were loan officers hiding in bushes outside of high schools waiting to jump out and force college bound seniors to sign their lives away to big banks.

That's not happening, of course, students are signing those documents willingly after actively seeking out loans for college. But you'd never know it by the way the candidates talk about student loans.

The issue isn't so much an issue as it is an opportunity to pander. Candidates dangle varying versions of loan forgiveness and "free" college to students with more debt than many companies as a way to buy votes. It's also a way for Democrats to advance an idea that is at the core of progressive politics: no personal responsibility.

So much of what Democrats are pushing this year is designed to insulate people from the bad choices they make -- don't worry about consequences, government is here to "fix" it. It's the "let mommy kiss your booboo" of 2020.

Derek Hunter has his own plan to solve the "student loan crisis" -- "lol get fucked" -- but I don't think the Millennial voting bloc is going to permit that.

I think, with Millennials demanding that trillions be spent for five free years of state-sponsored Day Care "College" and retrofitting a billion cows with carbon-scrubbing diapers, it's pretty much inevitable that Social Security benefits are going to be cut from 2035 onwards.

posted by Ace of Spades at 04:01 PM

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