Retirement, health reform may be delayed: senator (Billions for war!!)

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070518/pl_nm/usa_congress_boomers_dc;_ylt=AmhuLE3.t1iF5B3ifYGKOevMWM0F

Retirement, health reform may be delayed: senator

By Richard Cowan Fri May 18, 6:21 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fixing U.S. retirement and health-care programs that threaten to bankrupt the government might be impossible before the next president arrives in 2009, a Democratic senator who had hoped to broker a deal this year said on Friday.
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Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (news, bio, voting record) of North Dakota had been plotting ways to achieve a bipartisan compromise by September on reforming the
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs.

As more baby boomers -- the huge generation born from roughly 1946 to 1964 -- retire, the costs of the programs for the elderly and poor are expected to rise rapidly.

In an interview with reporters, Conrad said, "The window of opportunity we thought we'd have might be closed" and that he would talk to his Republican counterpart, Sen. Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record) of New Hampshire, about a possible delay.

[Billy Burnett]

1. Weakened enough to be 'drowned in a bathtub' yet?

America: #1 with a bullet.

[papau]

2. Obama/Conrad say the same thing "all options are on the table" re Soc Sec - thank God its delayed

..."politically difficult subjects such as tax increases, lower benefits and Social Security privatization. Bush has unsuccessfully promoted the latter.

Conrad and others have insisted all topics be included in the negotiation. "

AS TO SOCIAL SECURITY NOTHING NEEDS TO BE DONE BASED ON THE 3rd OFFICIAL TRUSTEES PROJECTION. Based on the 2nd projection removing the wage cap while also using the higher wages for higher benefits solves that projection. If you want to get real conservative based on the 1st projection, throw in increasing the retirement age from Reagan's 67 to 70 beginning at 2030 at 1/12th of a year per year, while retaining early retirement earliest age as age 62.

The Medical cost crisis has but one solution - single payer national health. Obama now endorses the Hillary health data system improvements and he estimates they'd save $75 billion - like that will affect a $2 trillion cost that grows over $100 billion due to inflation each year.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Oh fuck all of them.

They took all of our surplus retirement money and gave it to their fucking friends. Now they want to 'reform' social security by screwing us out of our pensions. Fuck them and the horse they rode in on. They can borrow the fucking money they owe us and pay us our cola adjusted pensions.