Congressional Democrats wildly cheered their obstruction of Social Security reform at President Bush’s State of the Union Address in 2006:
That was 3 years ago.
Today HotAir reports that a new study shows Social Security will start running in the red in 2016.
The jig is up.
The Washington Post reported that Social Security is insolvent:
The financial health of the Social Security system has eroded more sharply in the past year than at any time since the mid-1990s, according to a government forecast that ratchets up pressure on the Obama administration and Congress to stabilize the retirement system that keeps many older Americans out of poverty.
The report, issued yesterday by the trustees who monitor the government’s two main forms of help for the elderly, shows that Medicare has become more fragile as well and is at greater risk than Social Security of imminent fiscal collapse. Starting eight years from now, the report says, the health insurance program will be unable to pay all its hospital bills.
The findings put a stark new face on the toll the recession has taken on the two enormous entitlement programs. They also intensify a political debate, gathering strength among Democrats and Republicans, over how quickly President Obama should tackle Social Security when health-care reform is his administration’s most urgent domestic priority…
Specifically, the trustees’ report predicts that the trust fund from which Social Security payments are made will be unable to pay retirees full benefits by 2037, four years earlier than forecast a year ago. In particular, the trustees single out the financial weakness of the part of the program that subsidizes disabled Americans, saying that fund will run out of money in 2020.
Senator Judd Gregg, Obama’s former pick for Commerce Secretary, urged Congress to take meaningful action on this trillion-dollar crisis.
Professor Bainbridge explains that what Obama wants to do won’t solve a “damned thing.”
UPDATE: Heritage Foundation reported that tax rates would need to more than double if entitlements are not reformed.
UPDATE 2: You won’t believe who Pelosi blamed for the Social Security and Medicare woes?
One guess.
