45.8T Funding Gap in Social Security/Medicare a Phony Crisis?

Social Security Money Well Spent

Robert Samuelson cites some pretty depressing figures on our country's bloated entitlement system that are sending us on the course to serfdom. From WaPo:

That the programs will ultimately go bankrupt is clear from the trustees' reports. On Pages 201 and 202 of the Medicare report, you will find the conclusive arithmetic: Over the next 75 years, Social Security and Medicare will cost an estimated $103.2 trillion, while dedicated taxes and premiums will total only $57.4 trillion. The gap is $45.8 trillion. (All figures are converted to "today's dollars.")

Gulp. The Logan's Run scenario is starting to look less and less like science fiction. But here comes HuffPo with a nasty attack piece about how this looming economic apocalypse, which no politician will touch, is actually something cooked up the Reich-wing!

This so-called crisis is phony, phony, phony. Really, it can't be said enough. America must care for its workers, and not for the private industry that wouldn't even exist without the hard work of retired Americans.

Note that this is the same Huffpo blogger who had a total wiff when she criticized John Bolton for predicting that North Korea was going to bring teh crazy and start testing nukes...which they did a few days later (h/t Legal Insurrection). How long are we going to have people (particularly Baby Boomers) play this Hear No Evil bullshit instead of listening to economic facts because they plan to spend their octogenarian years sucking off the government teet? Even the President knows this monstrosity is going to be trouble ahead, and he's not exactly Mr. Fiscal Conservative.