Friday, July 8, 2016

Why Don't Politicians Tell The Truth About Social Security?

The boards of trustees of our Social Security and Medicare programs just issued their annual report, and we learn, once again, that both programs are fiscally insolvent.
The trustees project there will be insufficient funds from the Social Security program to pay its obligations beginning in 2034, 18 years from now, and Medicare will fall short in 2028, 12 years from now.
Given that both of these programs play outsized roles both in the federal budget -- combined they represent 41% of federal spending in 2015 -- and in the personal lives of just about every American citizen, you'd think there would be a big uproar about this.
But the silence is deafening.
In a recent Gallup poll listing 17 issues "extremely/very important" to voters in their considerations for the presidential race, neither Social Security nor Medicare are even on the list, which may be the reason why neither of the presumptive presidential candidates seem to be too serious about this.
AARP asked the Clinton and Trump campaigns how both plan to deal with Social Security.
Hillary Clinton is so unconcerned about the massive projected shortfalls that she actually wants to expand the program. She wants to transform Social Security into another huge welfare program by expanding benefits for lower-income earners and raising taxes on higher earners.
The response from the Trump campaign was equally enigmatic in that there was no response at all, except to assure us that if the economy grows everything will be just fine.
Read the rest of Star Parker's op-ed HERE.

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