Social security and medicare, the most expensive federal programs for retirees, are heading towards bankruptcy. Within the next ten years, the government will be spending more money on social security benefits than it receives in revenues from payroll deductions and the medicare program is already losing money. Why is this happening? One of the primary problems is that both men and women are living longer than anyone would have predicted when the programs were developed. Also in the case of medicare, health care costs have skyrocketed in the last decade with medical advances. To solve this problem, there is no easy solution. Some people say we should overhaul the whole system by offering the private investment accounts and cutting benefits for everyone except those who really need it. Others argue that the problem can be solved with a couple modest fixes, like raising the retirement age and rasing the cap.
With people living longer and higher health care costs, I think we need to cut benefits for everyone except for the the ones who truley need it. This meaning we only provide social security and medicare to the people who can't afford it otherwise. It's reasonable not to provide it for those are who wealthy enough to comfortably pay for it themselves. Who really needs that much money anyways? And this would also help tighten the gap between the wealthy and poor. I think this is the best route to take. Raising the retirement age would postpone payments for the government, but could create hardships for the retirees or force employees to work beyond normal retirement age. And raising the cap on earnings above the current $106,800 (meaning wages above that amount would be taxed for social security) would create inequities with the higher wage earners. Jim Hightower, has similar views as I do when dealing with the federal budget.
Spending What We Can Afford http://erintakle.blogspot.com/
War Dollars http://backstroker321.blogspot.com/
With people living longer and higher health care costs, I think we need to cut benefits for everyone except for the the ones who truley need it. This meaning we only provide social security and medicare to the people who can't afford it otherwise. It's reasonable not to provide it for those are who wealthy enough to comfortably pay for it themselves. Who really needs that much money anyways? And this would also help tighten the gap between the wealthy and poor. I think this is the best route to take. Raising the retirement age would postpone payments for the government, but could create hardships for the retirees or force employees to work beyond normal retirement age. And raising the cap on earnings above the current $106,800 (meaning wages above that amount would be taxed for social security) would create inequities with the higher wage earners. Jim Hightower, has similar views as I do when dealing with the federal budget.
Spending What We Can Afford http://erintakle.blogspot.com/
War Dollars http://backstroker321.blogspot.com/
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