OK there is something I don't understand....

If Soc. Security and Medicare DON'T contribute anything to the debt or deficit, (I.E., they are self-funding)why the hell does ANYONE want to CUT them, in an effort to reduce spending? I'm not seeing the arguments..are we supposed to take the funds from Soc. Sec (again, cause thats what we have been spending in lieu of raising taxes on anyone, right?)and use that money to pay down the debt/deficit (a good portion of which gets paid BACK into the Soc. Sec account that we borrowed it from IN THE FIRST PLACE?

'Cause if thats the argument, thats just stupid, on the surface...or is there something deeper happening with the numbers that I'm not understanding?

Think of it from the Republican point of view, which is that Social Security and Medicare are evil, and must be gotten rid of bit by bit. The way it is being done is to partially fund Social Security out of general revenues by lowering the Social Security tax. Lowering the social security tax means the shortfall in covering payouts must be made by dipping into the general fund, so Republicans can claim Social Security is adding to the debt. Social Security would be self-funded, or even run a surplus, if they stopped fiddling with how it is paid for.

Personally, I'd rather just cut the military budget by about 700 billion, but thats just me, I guess.

Move that money into a new Manhattan project - this time aggressively researching alternative energy and ways to reverse climate change. It will put more people to work than the military budget does.

repeating the words, 'Lock Box.'

Q: What is your Social Security plan?

GORE: "I will keep it in a lockbox. The interest savings, I would put right back into it. That extends the life for 55 years. I am opposed to a plan that diverts 1 out of every 6 dollars away from the Trust Fund. It would go bankrupt within this generation. "

The only way money comes out of SS is to pay benefits.

made that into a joke at every opportunity. It was repeated at least 10 times a day during the campaign.

Al, was RIGHT and besides that he WON.

When the rest of the world writes about the fall of the American Empire in the history books of the next century, they will point to that travesty of a Supreme Court decision as the nail in the coffin.

can rob the country some more while they all rake in obscene profits. Don't know about Medicare.

I think if they really try that, though, EVERYBODY will rebel. Randi Rhodes said that was a big black mark against Bush II - when he wanted to privatize it. Hopefully their continued brainwashing hasn't been successful.

...the Social Security Trust Fund has been raided since Reagan to fund deficit-spending. Reagan slashed taxes for the wealthy after pushing for the creation of the SSTF, then promptly borrowed from the SSTF to help fill in the gaping hole in the budget that the tax cuts created.

Social Security used to be a net-zero program; current workers paid for current retirees. However, to deal with the retirement of the Baby Boomers (a bulge in the US population that is just now hitting retirement age) it was decided to make the Boomers partially self-fund their own retirement.

The SSTF was suppose to melt away to zero as the Boomers numbers dwindled, so that in the mid-21st Century it would go back to being net-zero.

But with only a portion of income being taxed (only the first $106k) and the declining middle class things aren't looking so hot in 40 years or so, so they'll have to start cutting benefits.

Of course, they could simply raise the percent rate, or the income ceiling, or both, but that would be......


SOCIALISM!!!