Social Security and Medicare hit by recession

From the Associated Press, May 12, 2009
Social Security and Medicare hit by recession
A portion of the article:

"Trustees of the programs said Tuesday that Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2016, one year sooner than projected last year, and the giant trust fund will be depleted by 2037, four years sooner.

"Medicare is in even worse shape. The trustees said the program for hospital expenses will pay out more in benefits than it collects this year and will be insolvent by 2017, two years earlier than the date projected in last year's report.

"The trust funds — which exist in paper form in a filing cabinet in Parkersburg, W.Va. — are bonds that are backed by the government's "full faith and credit" but not by any actual assets. That money has been spent over the years to fund other parts of government. To redeem the trust fund bonds, the government would have to borrow in public debt markets or raise taxes. "

(End of portion of the article) My words follow:

The last paragraph points out the helplessness of the public. "That money has been spent over the years to fund other parts of government." So this is what the government has done with most of the money that we all have "contributed" over the years. Now you may say that we are not "helpless" because we have the power of the vote. The trouble with that argument is that all three breeds on the hill ( Democrats, Republicans and Independents ) have spent this money recklessly.

That's the truth, look it up.