Friday, January 14, 2005
Scare Tactics
From the latest report of the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees:
As we reported last year, Medicare's financial difficulties come sooner--and are much more severe--than those confronting Social Security. While both programs face essentially the same demographic challenge, health care costs per enrollee are projected to rise faster than the wages per worker on which the payroll tax is paid and on which Social Security benefits are based. As a result, while Medicare's annual costs are currently 2.7 percent of GDP, or about 60 percent of Social Security's, they are now projected to surpass Social Security expenditures in 2024 and reach almost 14 percent of GDP in 2078, more than twice the percent for Social Security in that year.Guess which system - Social Security or Medicare - the Bush administration is trying to "reform" by running a public scare campaign. Guess why. They have no shame.
