Reply #10: Given the Baby Boom retirement bomb, we have until sometime before 2018 [View All]

[AirAmFan]

to straighten out our fisc before Social Security revenues start falling below promised payouts. In 2003, the SSA took in $632B and paid out $479B. Dubya squandered several times the difference on tax cuts for the rich and trying to be a "war president" like Daddy. This year will be much worse, and interest rates will start climbing on all the money we've unnecessarily borrowed.

In 2018, since the "lock box" is likely to be empty, most of the Treasury's borrowing capacity will have to be devoted to fulfilling retirement promises to Boomers (see http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/trustee04-pr.htm ). If we don't get back on the surplus track well before then, there will be generational war. If enough can be borrowed or squeezed out of other budget items to fully pay out the "Trust Fund", Social Security STILL goes bust in 2042. Nice going, Dubya!