So though the remarkable decline in the annual Social Security surplus from 2008 to 2009 qualifies as surprising news, the inevitable bottom-line debacles awaiting it and Medicare do not. Anyone capable of doing simple arithmetic — and willing to face the hard truths of a protracted, persisting drop in the workers-to-beneficiaries ratio — could long ago see that those massive federal entitlement programs were unsustainable without comprehensive transformations.
Those needed makeovers grow more costly with every passing year of inaction. Something’s got to give, likely on both sides of the funds collected/funds dispersed equation, or the system will go bankrupt.
That dire outcome will occur even if Washington stops robbing the Social Security trust fund. Nor has that regular raiding kept the regular federal budget deficit from rising to record levels, and the White House budget plan predicts another $1.6 trillion in red ink.