A few things about cutting SS and Medicare

[Captain Stern]

85. I don't get how that would keep the system solvent.

Someone born in 1990 wouldn't turn 67 until 2057, so it seems like raising the age when they could start receiving benefits wouldn't have any effect at all until then.

As things stand, social security is running at a deficit. More money is being paid out in benefits than we are paying in. The difference is being made up by the federal government paying back the money that was borrowed from SS during the years where the program ran at a surplus. It is projected that all of that money will be paid back in 2034.

If nothing is done before then, to either increase SS revenue, decrease SS spending, or both, people who are receiving SS benefits in 2034 will take an immediate cut of about 20%.

Unfortunately, if raising the age we can receive benefits is going to be part of the solution, it's going to have to be applied to folks who were born way before 1990. I think we're talking more like 1960.