FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY SUMMIT AND HEALTH CARE

According to the Social Security and Medicare Trustees:

• The unfunded liability in Social Security and Medicare is more than $100 trillion dollars (that's trillion, not billion), or about 6 ½ times the size of the entire U.S. economy.
• That's the size of our commitments over and above expected premiums and dedicated taxes, measured in current dollars.
• Of this amount, Medicare accounts for about $85 trillion; additionally, Medicaid is almost as large as Medicare and two thirds of that is a federal obligation.

Even if we decided to close down Social Security and Medicare tomorrow, collecting no more payroll taxes and allowing no more benefit accruals, we still owe about $52 trillion in benefits that have already been earned.

If we stay on the current course, these programs will crowd out every other federal program over time...

[And to this Obama wants to add a massive new entitlement.]

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image toon - mny sclm bbro - SSN + Medicare moon looks so close