A Brick Wall

Without a Door.

First an announcement, as of January 19, 2011 WildBlue Satellite has been dis-installed. We will, for the time being, be using NetZero dial-up service which will be slower but more reliable.

Sometime around Thanksgiving of 2009 I began a one man campaign against "Obamacare" by e-mailing my Senators, most everyone on Fox News, (as much as I hate to admit that I watch Fox News that much), newspapers and talking to anyone who would listen. I wanted someone (the more the better) to help me protest the twice use of money saved in the Medicare program by cutting payments to doctors and hospitals and / or cutting waste and fraud in Medicare (which probably wouldn't or couldn't be done), then using that phantom money to both shore up the Social Security Trust Fund for future generations and used a second time to help fund "Obamacare". The Administration claims they can save a half trillion dollars over ten years from those cuts (that probably would never happen) to be used to make "Obamacare" appear to save money. David Copperfield would be proud of a trick like that.

Some of my e-mails were also in defense of Social Security and Medicare against the claims that those two programs are the biggest drain on our National Budget and must be cut before we can lower the budget deficit and by extension the National Debt. Now I fear that the time has come to just throw up my hands, turn off my computer and try to forget it all but, just for fun, I'll make one more short presentation of facts or as near as can be ascertained. At the end of 2009 "The Social Security Trust Fund", which pays all Social Security and Medicare benefits, had a surplus of two and a half trillion dollars. The year 2010 added about another 77 billion dollars to that surplus. This money all came from the FICA or what most of us call "payroll" taxes. Yes, I know, that the Trust Fund money was invested in "Special Government Securities" and then that money was used by our Government to pay for other programs which were not backed by trust funds. Those Government Securities are backed by the full force of our Government and are due and payable upon demand.

Within the next few years that trust fund will reach the breakeven point (income will equal outgo) and that point will get here even earlier now that the President and Congress cut two percentage points off the payroll tax for the next year. Until we reach that break even point, Social Security and Medicare will still be fully self-funded (pay as you go) and will have nothing to do with the deficit. There just won't be as much surplus coming in, from the payroll tax, to be used for other un-funded programs. The biggest problem for the politicians is that when the Trust Fund needs more of its money to pay Social Security and Medicare benefits the Treasury will have to borrow the money to buy back some of those Government Securities and that will add to the deficit and the National debt. Some people are going to great lengths to make it appear that Social Security and Medicare are the culprits in the huge deficits being run up today but that simply isn't true.

Yes, again I know, Social Security and Medicare will be on the brink in a few years and needs to be reformed - the sooner the better. I have already suggested one way to shore up the Social Security Trust Fund and pay down the National debt but have had no takers at this time. I am willing to forfeit between one and five percent of my almost eight hundred dollars a month Social Security check to be returned to the Trust Fund to help keep it solvent for future generations IF all Federal and State employees (and other highly paid workers) will agree to give up the same percentage to help pay down the National and State debts. I will also agree that the retirement age should be raised, especially for full benefits. If we started with the present retirement age and raised it one year every five to ten years it should work out okay. With IRAs and 401Ks most people should have better retirement opportunities in the future.

I won't hold my breath until someone else agrees with me on these propsals but don't blame me for the bankrupting of America. My time is up for today. Thanks for your time and input, stay tuned - William