So if Medicare (and social security) are going to run out of money why isn't

[YewNork]

the government raising the contribution rates of those taxes in order to sustain those programs?

In the mid 1990s, Canada realized that the Canada Pension Plan (their version of social security) would run out of funds within 20 years if they
didn't increase the contribution rate. So, over a period of seven years, the contribution rate for both employees and employers was increased
from 2.8% to 4.95%. This change has guaranteed that there will be sufficient funds to maintain the system.

Now, everyone's complaining that Medicare and Social Security are running out of funds, but the one thing that those same people won't do is
increase the contributions to whatever level is needed to maintain them. That's just burying their heads in the sand. Wake up people, the
problem is not going to go away and by ignoring it you're just making the ultimate outcome worse.

[ejpoeta]

1. because people want things without having to put into them.... they expect some magical

thing to keep it going forever.

[rfranklin]

2. I don't know about Medicare but SS was fully funded...

practicallly into perpetuity. Then Reagan and Bush I spent it as fast as they could leaving us with the IOUs that Bush II was mumbling about a few years back.

I remember my paycheck shrinking as Reagan raised the contributions and told us that this would fund SS virtually forever. It was just a way to fund government spending on useless weapons without taxing the wealthy.

[katkat]

4. SS should not be running out of money

In some other thread, I posted the number crunching I had done, based on supposed I had invested everything the gov had taxed from me for SS instead in a 5% passbook account with compound interest all those years. 5% is a conservative long term amount, by the way, n.b. the 1980s double digit returns on passbooks and CDs.

It would be enough to pay my SS benefits until a very old age and still leave the gov with a big pot of money left over.

Now, there were likely transient effects as SS started up, but they should be long gone from the system.

So, what has the gov done with the SS money...

[Arkansas Granny]

3. For some reason, many Americans view taxes as a penalty. I don't where they think

the money comes from to provide the services that everyone expects to have, but they sure don't want to have to contribute anything.

[stray cat]

5. because most of us in the lower and middle income ranges don't vote for people who raise our taxes

just like the upper incomes. DUers are in favor of raising taxes for SS and Medicare as long as it is on those in higher income brackets then themselves. I think support goes down when the sacrifices demanded touch us. We need leaders with courage to offend Americans and lose the next election.

[OHdem10]

6. Tell Congress to stop stealing from these programs everytime

they want to fund an earmark, fund a war, or give to a pet project.

If Congress did not use SS, especially for general funds and
leave IOUs the funds would be a lot better off.

Don"t you love it. Steal money from a fund then say Oh, Dear,
this fund is running out of money.

[OllieLotte]

7. Interesting. We are contributing over 7% in the US.

With the employer kicking in an additional 7%. That should be more than enough.

[grasswire]

8. because they want to drown it in the bathtub

They have wanted to kill government programs for decades now.

If they don't make it solvent, it will be dead. And they want it dead.

(And grandma too, apparently.)