Early Retirement Blog

Alert! Social Security and Medicare are under attack. President Obama’s Budget Deficit Commission and Congress, at the behest of Wall Street, is planning a Christmas Eve massacre of Social Security and Medicare.  Unfortunately, we do not have until Christmas, to stop these criminals from robbing Americans of these vital retirement programs.

If Social Security and Medicare will be saved, it will have to happen before the November 2010 elections, after that it will be too late.  Contact your Congressional Representative and Senators, and tell them that if they vote to rob you and the rest of your fellow Americans of their retirements, that you will actively work against their election.

Ask your politicians to publicly pledge that they will not vote for the Budget Deficit Commissions recommendations, if it includes cuts to Social Security and Medicare, or a raising of the retirement age.

The following article was written in 2008 with recommendations on how to fix Social Security and Medicare….

The trustees for Social Security and Medicare released their annual report, and the news was pessimistic. The Social Security trust fund will start paying out more, than it receives in the year 2017, and will run out of funds entirely in the year 2041.

Medicare is in even worse shape. Politicians, and presidential candidates either avoid the subject, or present murky proposals and promises.

The main problem facing Social Security and Medicare is demographic. The Baby Boom generation, a large percentage of the population, is starting to retire. They will soon stop contributing, to Social Security and Medicare, and begin receiving benefits.

Rising health care costs, longer life expectancies, less and less individuals contributing, all will unavoidably drain the system. The pressure will be on to raise the retirement age, and reduce benefits, to make up the difference.

Fixing Social Security

If the problem is demographic, could the solution to the Social Security and Medicare crisis, be addressed demographically? Yes. It is a simple numbers equation, to support the Baby Boomers and generations beyond, we need more workers paying into the system.

How many workers? Millions. Where are we going to find millions of new workers contributing to Social Security and Medicare? They’re already here – the 12 million illegal and undocumented workers, who are living and working, right now in the United States. Make them citizens.

Fixing Health Care

Our health care system is a complete mess and failure. The for profit health care industry, excludes 48 million Americans, and still can’t function properly. It is way past time for the United States, to join the rest of the industrial world, and provide it’s citizens with universal health care.

The presidential candidates proposals do not go far enough in addressing the problems in health-care. Their motives appear to be the protection of health care industry profits, while ignoring the issue, of rising health care costs.

Competition has failed to keep costs low. The health care insurance industry simply passes the increased costs onto it’s consumers. Profit causes the health care insurance industry to exclude the sick, poor, and elderly. By nature, the health care insurance industry is not accountable to it’s consumers, only to it’s shareholders.

Only the government will insure everyone, and only government, has the power to cap price increases. Also, government, at least in theory, is accountable to it’s citizens. Politicians will be held accountable for poor service and rising costs.

Lacking Leadership

The situation facing Social Security is dramatic, the current proposals by our politicians and presidential contenders, are half measures that will not solve the crisis. Dramatic solutions, such as National Health Care and citizenship for undocumented workers, will be required to save Social Security and Medicare.

Unfortunately, the country is lacking the bold leadership necessary, and so I remain as pessimistic as the trustees.

This is the  Retirement Blog. Visit the Green Retirement Planning Website to learn how to retire early and try our free retirement calculators.

Also Read:
Stop the Budget Deficit Commission
How To Save $1 Million
How To Retire with Less than $1 Million