Apr 23, 2008 -- Politicians skirting the Medicare/Social Security issue
The 3 remaining presidential candidates are all afraid to talk about Social Security and Medicare going broke. It's cute for people running for office to talk about how they'll make government efficient and lower taxes. But unless you address head on what's eating up the federal budget, you're not being serious about what you're doing to help the country.
People who are under age 35 shouldn't be faulted if they have more faith in the Tooth Fairy than Social Security supplementing their retirement. But the bigger issue is Medicare, which is now projected to end up in the red by 2019. Social Security, meanwhile, is expected to go in the red around 2041. Why should young people care about something that will happen 33 years from now? Simply put, the feds are going to tax you and employer very heavily to pay for older folk's Social Security and Medicare. If you're younger, you're getting ripped off completely because the money you're paying in won't be available to you.
Younger people have got to save for retirement because they won't have a check coming from Uncle Sam every month during their golden years. Somebody needs the courage to face up to American citizens and tell them what they don't want to hear -- that we don't have money to do all this. Clark feels younger people should be allowed to opt out of Social Security and opt in to a mandatory retirement savings withdrawal. What we can't do is allow people to opt out of Social Security and not save for the future.
Why is it so hard for McCain, Clinton and Obama to own up to the facts as they are and get a plan together? Politicians only tell us only what we want to hear. Maybe most Americans aren't willing to hear the real story. What do you think?