Will GOP Cut Social Security And Medicare Before Or After The 2018 Election?

[Alcoholic Actuary]

Which is why such forward projections are favored among the "reform" crowd. They generate panic inducing large numbers.

Should we not project it? I'm generation X and have already been told by the SSA that my benefit will be expected to be paid at something like .75 on the dollar. I've contributed for 30+ years. And truth be told I'm happy to accept whatever fate befalls me wrrt SS. But I'm also at the 'Plan for Retirement' stage of my life and kind of need to know how much I'm going to get from SS to complete those plans. So far as conservatives control government, I zero confidence that I can rely on it. Should we all just plan on it not existing?

eta: Just read through the actuarial report on OASI and DI and see if this is just wagon circling or legitimate concern for plan balance.

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[Horatio Parker]

If enough people become convinced that is unpossible to continue SS, it will be discontinued.

As for projections, drink and drive responsibly!

Taxes are paid by debiting accounts of the member commercial banks accounts whereas spending occurs by crediting the same. The notion that debited funds have some further use is nonsensical. When taxes are levied the revenue does not go anywhere. The flow of funds is accounted for, but accounting for a surplus that is merely a discretionary net contraction of private liquidity by government does not change the capacity of government to inject future liquidity at any time it chooses.

The mainstream economic intertemporal analysis that deficits lead to future tax burdens is also problematic. The problem is that the federal budget is not really a ‘bridge’ that spans the generations in some restrictive manner. Each generation is free to select the tax burden it endures. Taxing and spending transfers real resources from the private to the public domain. Each generation is free to select how much they want to transfer via political decisions mediated through political processes.

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=749