Michelle Malkin » Hey, Harry Reid, do you think we have an entitlement crisis yet?

Hey, Harry Reid, do you think we have an entitlement crisis yet?

By Michelle Malkin • May 12, 2009 11:56 PM

I want to remind you of what Harry Reid said just a few years ago in response to Republican calls for Social Security and Medicare reform. Reacting to GOP warnings in 2005 about the impending insolvency of both programs, Reid sneered:

“Today’s report confirms that the so-called Social Security crisis exists in only one place — the minds of Republicans,” said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. “In reality, the program is on solid ground for decades to come.”

Now, the Obama administration tells us:

Social Security and Medicare are fading even faster under the weight of the recession, heading for insolvency years sooner than previously expected, the government warned Tuesday. Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2016, a year sooner than projected last year, and the giant trust fund will be depleted by 2037, four years sooner, trustees reported.

Medicare is in even worse shape. The trustees said the program for hospital expenses will pay out more in benefits than it collects this year, just as it did for the first time in 2008. The trustees project that the Medicare fund will be depleted by 2017, two years earlier than the date projected in last year’s report.

The trust funds — which exist in paper form in a filing cabinet in Parkersburg, W.Va. — are bonds that are backed by the government’s “full faith and credit” but not by any actual assets. That money has been spent over the years to fund other parts of government. To redeem the trust fund bonds, the government would have to borrow in public debt markets or raise taxes.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the head of the trustees group, said the new reports were a reminder that “the longer we wait to address the long-term solvency of Medicare and Social Security, the sooner those challenges will be upon us and the harder the options will be.”

Republicans have been saying this for years.

Just a figment of imagination, eh, Sen. Reid?

Posted in: Harry Reid, Health care

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#699770

On May 13th, 2009 at 12:03 pm, Ragspierre said:

you first. we’ll know you actually have when you stop posting…since they don’t have internet access in prison…

I will be among the actual boycotters. There will be support teams, as well, to handle mediation, PR, and legal matters.

The boycott will not come until other initiatives have been tried and exhausted, and until there is a critical mass that will bugger the system.

As an attorney, I doubt very much that anyone will be going to jail.

But is that too high a price to effectively fight this?

What are you willing to do?
#699799

On May 13th, 2009 at 12:25 pm, cabrerski said:

The only real difference between Republicans and Democrats once they become part of Washington DC:

They both want to take the same amount of money from you, its just that the Republicans have a smaller group of friends to distribute it to.

Vote out all federal office incumbents
#699807

On May 13th, 2009 at 12:31 pm, Regulus said:

The main reason why Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the whole entitlement regime is eventually going to collapse is because it’s impossible to get the donks to deal with the problems on an adult level.

It used to be OK for donks to talk about the Social Security and Medicare “crisis” when Bill Clinton was in office, but that was only done to frighten the elderly into thinking that mean old Republicans were going to take it all away (remember “Mediscare?”).

But when George Bush tried to reform Social Security, suddenly the “crisis” went away and the donks lied through their teeth claiming that there wasn’t any problem at all and that — you guessed it — mean old Republicans were using “reform” as code for taking it all away.

Now the whole, ponderous apparatus is crumbling sooner than even most alarmists predicted. And the only worthwhile question is, what tack will the donks take this time to scare people into believing that mean old Republicans want to take it all away?

It’s as true of reform of Social Security and Medicare as it is with education reform: donks couldn’t care less about the solution, they want the issue. Indeed, since any practical solution would take away the opportunity to terrorize people about the Nefarious Republican Menace, it’s in the donks interest to keep things tottering on the edge of catastrophe for as long as possible.
#699818

On May 13th, 2009 at 12:37 pm, Ragspierre said:

True, again.

When you have Milton Friedman and many other economists labeling SS as a Ponzi scheme,

and you can see the handwriting on the wall…

as they have for DECADES,

and the Dimocrats just keep the program alive and unchanged to demagogue the GOP….

I can only call that corrupt, vile, and anti-American.

just sayin…
#699836

On May 13th, 2009 at 12:47 pm, 24Klady said:

Let us not forget ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ which will add millions more to the rolls. SS could be bankrupt by 2015 if Reid and the boys get their wish.
#699913

On May 13th, 2009 at 1:42 pm, rightisright said:

Remember folks, voters actually believe their lies and deceit every election…voters to busy watching t.v. programming to have any idea what’s going on in the world.