Social Security and Medicare: The promise America made and the bills we postponed

Social Security and Medicare: The.

Key points

• If Congress does nothing, Social Security will still pay regarding 78 percent of scheduled benefits, and Medicare Part A would still cover concerning 89 percent of projected costs.
• Every few years, Washington problems another warning concerning Social Security and Medicare, and Americans react in one of two ways.
• When Social Security was created in 1935, America was a younger nation.
• Colom gets $1.2 million in ad support from national Democrats in lead up to Election Day.
• Social Security and Medicare: The promise America created and the bills we postponed.

Social Security and Medicare: The promise America created and the bills we postponed. By: Sid Salter – October 21, 2026.

Meanwhile, the question is not whether America can afford to fix Social Security and Medicare. The question is whether America will choose to do so before the choices become far more painful than they need to be.

Every few years, Washington problems another warning concerning Social Security and Medicare, and Americans react in one of two ways. Some insist the sky is falling. Others shrug and note that politicians have been predicting trouble for decades. The truth lies somewhere in the uncomfortable middle.

Social Security and Medicare won't go broke tomorrow. Checks are still going out. Hospitals are still being paid. But neither program is financially sound over the long haul. While Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund can pay full benefits until 2033, according to the latest trustees' reports, the Social Security retirement trust fund can pay full scheduled benefits until late 2032.

When Social Security was created in 1935, America was a younger nation. Life expectancy was shorter. Relatively few individuals collected benefits, and those who did generally received them for only a handful of years. A sizeable workforce backed a comparatively small retired population.

Today, Americans live longer and have fewer children. The Baby Boom generation is moving into retirement while the generations that follow are smaller. In simple terms, fewer workers pay into the system for every retiree drawing benefits.

Medicare faces the same demographic pressures, compounded by rising health-care costs and medical advances that allow Americans to live far longer than lawmakers imagined when they enacted the program in 1965.

Another part of this story deserves an honest explanation. Plenty of Americans believe Congress "raided" Social Security. Politicians have repeated that charge so often that it has become accepted wisdom. The reality is more complicated.

For decades, Social Security collected more in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits. Those surpluses flowed into the Social Security Trust Fund, where federal law required they be invested in special U.S. Treasury securities. In plain English, Social Security loaned its surplus cash to the federal administration and received Treasury bonds in return.

Notably, the administration then employed that cash as it does other borrowed funds, financing administration operations and reducing the amount it otherwise would have borrowed from financial markets.

Those surpluses generated cash that was spent years ago. What remains are Treasury obligations that must now be redeemed as benefit payments exceed payroll-tax collections. To repay those obligations, the federal administration must raise taxes, reduce spending elsewhere, borrow more capital, or pursue some combination of all three.

Every realistic solution requires somebody to sacrifice something. There is no painless answer.

If taxes are raised, workers and employers will pay more. If benefits are reduced, retirees will live on less than projected. If the retirement age rises, future workers will remain on the job longer. If the administration uses general revenues, taxpayers will finance these programs from a different pocket. Politicians in both parties know these realities, but election-year politics reward promises more readily than arithmetic.

Still, solutions exist. A responsible reform package would probable include a number of elements. Congress could gradually raise the earnings base subject to Social Security payroll taxes. Lawmakers could gradually rise the full retirement age for younger workers while protecting current retirees. Medicare could continue reforms that reward value over volume and reduce wasteful spending.

Congress should act sooner rather than afterwards. Addressing these challenges now would allow changes to be phased in gradually. Waiting until trust-fund reserves approach exhaustion in 2032 and 2033 would force lawmakers into far more painful choices. Every year of delay narrows the range of manageable options.

Americans understandably become nervous when they hear that Social Security and Medicare face financial challenges. Yet we can still keep the promise created to generations of Americans. Doing so will require honesty from elected authorities and realism from the public. The bill is coming due whether Washington acknowledges it or not. Regarding the Author(s).

Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. He is Vice President for Strategic Communications at Mississippi State University. Sid is a member of the Mississippi Press Association's Hall of Fame. His syndicated columns have been published in Mississippi and a number of national newspapers since 1978. Opinion Sid Salter October 7, 2026.

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In short, social Security and Medicare: The promise America made and the bills we is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.