It’s simple to believe that anything is possible in the dreamy days between Christmas and the start of the ordinary workweek.
A decision to have healthier in 2025 will help balance the scales.
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For most of us, this is hazardous self-deception.
However, Congress has the same culture, and it’s produced a sluggish authorities that soon won’t be able to obtain what’s been promised to citizens.
Before their faith funds run out and Medicare and Social Security stop providing total benefits, they still have ten years to go.
Congress knows the date. A statement from the applications ‘ directors spells it out every month.
According to the most recent statistics, Medicare will follow suit in 2035 and Social Security will start to work out.  ,
But those estimates, from May, are already out of time because the Senate decided to belt out 2024 by passing a plan that truly makes Social Security , less , fluid and brings the collapse a full time closer.
Individuals who already have state, local, or provincial government pensions are now ready for more Social Security benefits than they did before thanks to a bipartisan bill introduced in December.
The program needs the same approach if it’s going to live another generation: means testing to complement limited resources with those who need them most rather than giving more money to retirees with various retirement resources.
Sen. Rand Paul risked being branded a Grinch by proposing an amendment to gradually raise Social Security’s living by slowly raising the retirement age to 70, while his associates played Santa Claus.
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Just two other Republicans– Utah’s Mike Lee and Wyoming’s Cynthia Lummis– backed his efforts.  ,
The rest of the Senate, Republicans and Democrats alike, seems to view shoring up Social Security ( and Medicare ) as a solution for some future new year.
Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that he didn’t allow Social Security to be cut.
But by doing nothing– or worse, adding to the agency’s burdens– Congress is, in truth, acquiescing to breaks, and severe types.
Before the December expansion proposal, Social Security was already set to meet only 83 % of its obligations after 2035: in effect, an across-the-board cut of 17 % from then on.
Similar to Medicare, which will only be able to pay about 89 % of its medical insurance duty after 2036.
What would seniors say if a candidate made a clear proposal to reduce Medicare by 1 %?
Elections at the start of the second decade will be overshadowed by the crisis, which will present candidates with a choice between huge cuts, higher taxes, or rapidly– not progressively– raising the eligibility age or implementing means testing if Congress can’t get serious about entitlement reform.
The more agonizing will be the judgment, and some next-generation Bernie Sanders will put the pressure on to start a class war as a result.
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Progressives are frightened of means testing because it disproves the notion that money transfers and social security are merely savings or insurance plans.
A need-based privilege would not have as many recipients and not as much social assistance as millionaires or billionaires would, despite their absurdity.
Democrats are aware that fighting for higher fees on everyone is a losing approach, as the Kamala Harris strategy demonstrated.
However, raising taxes on some people– specifically the rich– to pay for more benefits for everyone is the sort of thing that may effectively control the majority in an emergency.
As the road gets shorter, the possibilities get more and more limitless.
The time has come to make a change, but with the newly divided House of Representatives, it is almost unthinkable to pass significant reform.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy enter this field.
Their Department of Government Efficiency is charged with reducing wasteful discretionary spending, but not with reforming entitlements.
However, DOGE has more power than its formal responsibilities would suggest.
Musk, after all, owns one of the nation’s most important news and opinion platforms: X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
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DOGE has the dual roles of being an auditor and an educator.
Musk and Ramaswamy can expedite Congress ‘ timetable for action by bringing attention to the fiscal realities that apply to all branches of the federal government, to entitlements, and to discretionary spending.
Left to their own devices, lawmakers would put off the hard work until the last minute, making reform a New Year’s resolution for five years from now, or later.
Musk, Ramaswamy, and their allies have a chance to change public opinion about Medicare and Social Security solvency right now.
If they do, it might still take years for Washington to catch up, but elected officials will be moving more quickly than they would of their own accord, and perhaps quickly enough to prevent a catastrophe.
