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Health & Fitness

FDR Warned Social Welfare Program Could Become Narcotic-like

For those who believe Social Security is a given and that the government can never take it away from you, beware!

 

Medicare and Social Security heading toward insolvency without reform

The Social Security Act was signed Aug. 14, 1935, as part of President Roosevelt's "New Deal." When speaking about the proposed Social Security program during his 1935 State of the Union message, Roosevelt added this ominous message:

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"The lessons of history, confirmed by evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence on relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.  It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is a violation of the traditions of America."

President Lyndon Johnson added Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 to his Social Security Act of 1965 as part of his "Great Society" program.

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The urgency to reform Social Security and Medicare was brought home in stark reality to residents of Lake Forest and Lake Bluff in a government report April 24 in the business section of Lake County News-Sun by Stephen Ohlemacher. His article, "Aging workforce strains Social Security, Medicare", told how this nation's Social Security and Medicare programs are siding toward insolvency.

Social Security and Medicare are together the largest U.S. public benefit programs and account for one-third of the federal budget. Both programs are expected to grow rapidly as the population ages and with it the increased cost of healthcare.

Medicare is expected to start operating in the red in 2024. Social Security will be unable to fulfill its obligations in 2033, three years earlier than projected last year.

Medicare alone faces an unfunded liability of $38.6 trillion. Unfunded benefits expected to be paid out by Medicare over the next 75 years will equal $328,404.43 for each household (as formulated by the number of American households by the Census Bureau in 2010). 

Social Security likewise faces an unfunded liability of $8.6 trillion, according to the 2012 annual report of its Board of Trustees. The figure represents the amount promised in benefits to people now alive that will not be funded for a period extending 75 years into the future through tax renevnues. This figure could easily balloon into $20.5 when extending the time period.

The $8.6 trillion of unfunded Social Security benefits equals $73,167.83 per household, once again based on the Census Bureau's number of American households in 2010.

For those who believe Social Security is a given and that the government can never take it away from you, beware!   

One of the least known facts about Social Security is that, although the government does have a moral obligation to pay Social Security benefits to those who have earned them, the government does not have a legal obligation to do so.  

In a 1960 ruling by the United States Supreme Court, the court ruled that nobody has a “contractual earned right“ to Social Security benefits.

According to the above strong language, Congress could do whatever it wanted to do with regard to changing or even eliminating Social Security.

Will legislators continue to push Social Security and Medicare reform down a roadway which will soon lead directly off a cliff? 

The April 24 dismal forecast should increase pressure on the White House and Congress to tackle these entitlement programs, but will they?  

What the American people should fear more than any reforms made to Medicare and Social Security which might potentially affect their benefits is the impending financial crisis that is leading this nation toward the fate of Greece and other failed European welfare countries.   

Will legislators have the courage to do what must be done to save Social Security and Medicaid for further generations of Americans, or do legislators care more about getting re-elected than they do about America's future, which includes our children and grandchildren?  

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