re: In just a few years, the average retiree will be receiving 37% more in SS than he paid in

quote:

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I simply don’t think the average person on the left or the right currently grasps the shite storm ...

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It's apparent you don't.
BTW, why post an Andrew Biggs Opinion piece without a link, as if it is hard news?

Why lump Medicare and SS together as they are as different as your IRA and health insurance?

Why the angst about SS in 2032, when the rest of our budget CURRENTLY is running at that deficit level?

As Biggs lets us in on his opinion, those are questions you should be asking.

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The fact is SS is not a retirement program.
It is not a benefit to the recipient.

It is a loan you and I and every employed American is forced to give to Uncle Sam.
The beneficiary is the Federal Government!

Uncle Sam borrows your SS contributions and converts them into paltry returning bonds or debt instruments. The correspondent debt pool is referred to as the SS Trust Fund. There is no actual money in the SSTF, just IOUs.

If the same SS contributions were invested in the stock market, munis, or even 30-yr treasuries there would be no pending 2032 program deficit. But of course, if Uncle Sam invested the money in stocks, he'd not have it to spend on Ukraine, or Solyndra, or funding of DOJ lawfare targeting Trump, etc. That would defeat the purpose.

Again, the program beneficiary is Uncle Sam, not you. Uncle Sam sets a paltry ROI, and you have no say in it. Now government claims you owe more because the ROI the feds allot doesn't cover payouts.

Meanwhile SS SOL increases roll in to further strain the program. That is no accident.

But, the bottomline is SS is currently in surplus. The rest of our budget is not.

When the Feds tell you to focus on a fiscal problem a decade off, while not addressing current areas which are far more problematic than SS will ever be, you'd better hold on to your wallet.