CBO: Entitlements, ObamaCare To Make Up 53% of Federal Spending

This is the collective majority Obama wanted/has created. More people depending upon others to support their lifestyles.

(CNSNews.com) – According to projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO),  entitlements and ObamaCare spending will comprise 53 percent of all federal spending over the coming decade, totaling $24.9 trillion.

In its updated Budget and Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday, the CBO projects that Social Security will account for $11.149 trillion in spending from 2014 to 2023 while federal health care entitlements, including Medicare, Medicaid, and ObamaCare, will spend $13.85 trillion. (That total includes TRICARE, CHIP, and “other” spending listed by the CBO under healthcare.)

ObamaCare’s insurance subsidies, exchange costs, and other spending are expected to cost the government $949 billion over the next 10 years. Medicare is expected cost $8.1 trillion while Medicaid is expected to cost $4.4 trillion.

Combined, these two entitlement categories (Social Security and all health care programs) will comprise 52.9 percent of the projected $47.2 trillion in total federal outlays from 2014 to 2023.

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Sen. Rand Paul: Ban Federal Spending on Anything but Interest Payments, Social Security and Military Pay

No matter what Republicans suggest, Obama is not going to cut his spending

GOLAN HEIGHTS — In a renewed attempt to force President Barack Obama’s hand on the debt limit, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul is pushing legislation that would ban federal spending on anything but interest payments on the national debt, Social Security checks, and military salaries.

Paul, who is traveling through Israel this week, told Business Insider here Thursday that he believes the GOP should take a more pro-active approach to the coming fight over raising the debt ceiling. Rather than march the country toward a government shutdown — and spook markets with possible default — Paul argued that Republicans should pass a bill that would force the government to prioritize payments to bondholders.

“The only real way to have leverage with the debt ceiling is to convince people that we are not going to default on our debt,” Paul said. “We could actually direct the President to pay our interest, make Social Security payments, pay soldier salaries, the basic functions that could keep government going. That way we take default off the table. They always scare us into raising the debt ceiling by saying that the stock markets will tank, everyone will go crazy if we default. I don’t think we should default — but I don’t think we should raise the debt ceiling either.”

As Paul points out, this would automatically force the federal budget into balance, a position he argues would give Republicans leverage to push through a comparatively gradual balanced budget amendment, similar to the “Cut, Cap and Balance” amendment that House Republicans passed in 2011.

“We have tax receipts to pay for about 70 percent of the government and we’re running deficits of about 30 percent, so what I would say is pay for the 70 percent we would all keep going and stop paying the other 30 percent until we come to an agreement,” Paul said. “That agreement would include an amendment to gradually balance the budget over five years. The only thing the debt ceiling would do is force us immediately to have a balanced budget.” 

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CBO: Federal Deficit for 2013 is already at $293 Billion Despite Tax Increases

But Obama and Democrats insist there isn’t a spending problem.

From the Congressional Budget Office:

The federal budget deficit was $293 billion for the first three months of fiscal year 2013 (that is, October through December 2012), $29 billion less than the shortfall recorded in the first quarter of last fiscal year, CBO estimates. Without shifts in the timing of certain payments in both years, however, the deficit for the three-month period would have been about $60 billion lower this year than in fiscal year 2012.

Total Receipts Were Up by 11 Percent in the First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2013

Receipts for the first three months of fiscal year 2013 totaled $616 billion, $60 billion more than those in the same period last year. Compared with receipts in the first quarter of last year: Emphasis Mine: (The government has spent close to a trillion dollars in 3 months)

• Individual income and payroll (social insurance) taxes together rose by $44 billion, or 10 percent—accounting for most of the first quarter’s gain in revenues. Taxes withheld from workers’ paychecks rose by $45 billion (or 10 percent) and nonwithheld receipts rose by $2 billion (or 8 percent). Those increases were offset by a $3 billion decline in receipts from unemployment taxes.
• Net corporate income taxes increased by $7 billion (or 13 percent); payments rose by $6 billion and refunds fell by $1 billion.
• Other revenues rose by $10 billion. Receipts from the Federal Reserve rose by about $6 billion, mostly because receipts in the last quarter of calendar year 2011 were unusually low compared with those both before and since. In addition, excise tax receipts rose by $2 billion (or 12 percent) and customs duties rose by $1 billion (or 11 percent).

Spending Was About the Same When Adjusted for Timing Shifts

By CBO’s estimate, federal outlays—totaling $909 billion—would have been about the same in the first quarter of 2013 as they were during that period in 2012, if not for shifts that occurred in the timing of certain payments because the scheduled payment dates fell on a weekend or holiday. (The year-over-year changes discussed below reflect adjustments to account for those shifts.)

For some major programs and activities, spending increased:

• Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—Expenditures for each of the three largest entitlement programs were greater than in the same period last year. Outlays for Social Security benefits increased the most—by $12 billion (or 7 percent). Spending for Medicare rose by $6 billion (or 5 percent) and outlays for Medicaid rose by $5 billion (or 8 percent).

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Researchers Say Social Security Crisis is Worse Than Government Predicts

Except those of us who know that Social Security is paying out more than it takes in under Obama and due to Obamanomics.

From NYT:

CONGRESS and President Obama have pushed through a relatively modest stopgap measure to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” but over the coming years, the United States will confront another huge cliff: Social Security.

In the first presidential debate, Mr. Obama described Social Security as “structurally sound,” and Mitt Romney said that “neither the president nor I are proposing any changes” to the program. It was a rare issue on which both men agreed — and both were utterly wrong.

For the first time in more than a quarter-century, Social Security ran a deficit in 2010: It spent $49 billion dollars more in benefits than it received in revenues, and drew from its trust funds to cover the shortfall. Those funds — a $2.7 trillion buffer built in anticipation of retiring baby boomers — will be exhausted by 2033, the government currently projects.

What added to this SS deficit? Obama’s payroll tax scheme and economic policies that saw unemployment above 8% for four years and the mass exodus of Americans from the labor force (31-year low in the labor force participation rate). Less Americans working = less SS taxes collect.

Those facts are widely known. What’s not is that the Social Security Administration underestimates how long Americans will live and how much the trust funds will need to pay out — to the tune of $800 billion by 2031, more than the current annual defense budget — and that the trust funds will run out, if nothing is done, two years earlier than the government has predicted.

The Social Security Trust Fund is a myth. It’s nothing more than IOUs because politicians, in both parties, have robbed our retirement fund to pay for other entitlement programs. Social Security is adding to the national deficit, despite what liberals claim.

We reached these conclusions, and presented them in an article in the journal Demography, after finding that the government’s methods for forecasting Americans’ longevity were outdated and omitted crucial health and demographic factors. Historic declines in smoking and improvements in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease are adding years of life that the government hasn’t accounted for. (While obesity has rapidly increased, it is not likely, at this point, to offset these public health and medical successes.) More retirees will receive benefits for longer than predicted, supported by the payroll taxes of relatively fewer working adults than projected.

Remarkably, since Social Security was created in 1935, the government’s forecasting methods have barely changed, even as a revolution in big data and statistics has transformed everything from baseball to retailing.

This omission can be explained by the fact that the Office of the Chief Actuary, the branch of the Social Security Administration that is responsible for the forecasts, is almost exclusively composed of, well, actuaries — without any serious representation of statisticians or social science methodologists. While these actuaries are highly responsible and careful and do excellent work curating and describing the data that go into the forecasts, their job is not to make statistical predictions. Yet the agency badly needs such expertise.

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Obamanomics: Social Security Ran $47.8B Deficit in FY 2012; Disabled Workers Hit New Record in December: 8,827,795

Despite these numbers, Democrats won’t lift a finger to fix Social Security, which is paying out more than it takes in under Obama.

(CNSNews.com) – The Social Security program ran a $47.8 billion deficit in fiscal 2012 as the program brought in $725.429 billion in cash and paid $773.247 for benefits and overhead expenses, according toofficial data published by Social Security Administration.

3-straight years under Obama. Another record he produces but you won’t to hear this from the liberal Obama-worshiping media.

The Social Security Administration also released new data revealing that the number of workers collecting disability benefits hit a record 8,827,795 in December–up from 8,805,353 in November.

Under Obamanomics, the new norm is a record number of Americans leaving the labor force and collecting disability for a living.

The overall number of Social Security program beneficiaries—including retired workers, dependent family members and survivors and disabled workers and their dependent family members—also hit a record in December, climbing from 56,658,978 in November to 56,758,185 in December.

In 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there was an average of 112.556 million full-time workers in the United States, of whom 17.806 million worked full-time for local, state or federal government. That left an average of only 94.750 million full-time private sector workers in the country.

That means that for every 1.67 Americans who worked full-time in the private sector in 2011, there is now 1 person collecting benefits from the Social Security administration.

It use to be 6-to-1. Social Security is one program that adds to the national deficit but Democrats just keep stealing from it to pay for all their liberal feel-good policies.

Despite its fiscal 2012 “net cash flow” deficit, as SSA describes it, the agency was able to book an on-paper “increase” of $64.580 billion in the Social Security Trust Funds. That, SSA says, is because the U.S. Treasury “paid” the trust funds $112.398 in “interest” in fiscal 2012 on the historial surpluses in Social Security taxes that the Treasury siphoned off to cover other spending by the federal government.

Think bank bail-outs, auto bail-outs and Obama’s $1 trillion plus budget deficits (stimulus/99 weeks of unemployment, ObamaCare, HAMP). All paid by stealing $$ from the Social Security “lock-box.”

As of the end of calendar year 2011, according to SSA, the Social Security Trust Fund equaled approximately $2.678 trillion.

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WaPo: Obama’s Fiscal Cliff Approach Isn’t as Balanced as He Claims

Obama and his party have no plans besides raising taxes. They want to go over the fiscal cliff to raise taxes on everyone so they can continue they’re plan to put the US into insolvency with their spending. They know, due to polls, that ignorant Americans will blame Republicans so it’s a win-win for them.

From WaPo:

DEMOCRATS LIKE TO say that they are for “balance” in the fiscal debate and that Republicans favor spending cuts. That argument is increasingly difficult to credit.

Since the election last month, a few modest proposals have been floated to slow the growth in entitlement spending. None of these would fix the problem, but they would at least acknowledge that a problem exists. One by one, the ostensible advocates of balance have shot them down, portraying each in turn as a mortal threat to the poor or the aged.

Nudging the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67, which President Obama supported last year? Unconscionable. Changing the way cost-of-living adjustments are calculated, which Mr. Obama also supported? Brutally unfair to veterans and seniors. Reform of Medicaid provider taxes, which liberal Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) only days ago described as a “charade” used by states to jack up funding from Washington? Unthinkable,the White House now says:In fact, with the Supreme Court having struck down a facet of Mr. Obama’s Affordable Care Actinvolving Medicaid, nothing in that program can be touched. And, while they’re at it, put Social Security off the table, too. We’re asked to accept the mythology that, though the pension and disability program is facing ever-widening shortfalls, it isn’t contributing to the overall deficit. …

[...]There are better and worse ways to bend the entitlement curve. Raise the Medicare age, but shield the neediest seniors. If you think Republicans are proposing the wrong way to adjust the cost-of-living index, finance expert Robert C. Pozen has proposed a progressive alternative.

But there’s no way to fix America’s problem without doing something on entitlements. If the Democrats — and Mr. Obama, in particular — don’t get more seriously into that discussion, they have no standing to complain about the Republicans’ lack of balance.

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Social Security…2012 Results

Under Obamanomics, Social Security has paid out more than it takes in for the past three years. It will soon be insolvent yet lefties do not want to restructure the program in any way, shape or form. They constantly lie about the IOUs sitting inside that fraudulent social security “lock-box” and even blocked President Bush’s reform efforts.

From ZeroHedge:

Social Security (SS) has released its estimates for the December data for benefits payed and taxes received. With this info, I can estimate the 2012 results that will be formally reported in five-months. It was a ho-hummer of a year for SS, it tread water vigorously, and ended up with a cash deficit of $46.7B, just a tad more red ink that 2011’s $45.6B. The pieces of the pie, and YoY comps:

Payroll tax receipts: $712.7B (+6.5%)

(Includes payment from Treasury Re the 2% tax cut)

Income from Tax on Benefits $27.1B (+15%) !!

(Means test)

Total Cash Receipts $739.8 (+7.0%)

Benefit Payments $780B (+6.9%)

(Includes RR interchange)

Overhead $6.7B (+4.7%)

Total cash Outlay $786B (6.8%)

Net cash flow loss $46.7B (+2.4%)

Interest income $111.4B (-1.7%)

(non-cash)

Accounting surplus $64.7B (-2.5%)

(Paper minus cash)

Number of Beneficiaries 56.8m (+2.5%)

Some thoughts on these results:

- The $46.7B annual cash deficit is the third in a row. The 2012 shortfall confirms it; SS will never see a cash flow surplus again. Every dollar of the cash shortfall MUST be funded by selling additional debt to the public.

I hope this is clear. I’ll repeat it. Social Security is adding to the debt held by the public. It is forcing the country to borrow more to fund current operations. When Senate Democrats, like Dick Durbin and Harry Reid say, “SS does not add a penny to our debt.” – they are lying.

- The Tax on Benefits is up to a meaningful $27.1b (+15%). The increase is the result of many newly retired folks who are getting SS, and also have other income (investments and pensions). This forces them to add the SS income into their tax base. THIS IS A “MEANS TEST”.

I emphasize this fact as there is very strong opposition to the concept of a means tax for SS by Democrats in Washington and the liberal press (Dean Baker). But it already exists!

Liberals don’t like means testing because it undermines the principals of SS. It makes it appear that SS is a form of welfare. The fear is that if SS is labeled as welfare, the popularity of the program would quickly wane. So the staunchest supporters of SS are avoiding a fix that could patch the finances for the worst reasons. They are supporting Roosevelt’s dreams, at the expense of the base they say they are trying to protect. Only in America….

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Biden Lied About His Role in Social Security Reform

When he wasn’t laughing, he was lying!

From ABCNews:

During the vice presidential debate last week, Vice President Joe Biden seemed to significantly overstate his role in the 1983 negotiations over Social Security.

Asked about Medicare reform, the vice president said, “Look, I was there when we did that with Social Security in 1983.  I was one of eight people sitting in the room that included Tip O’Neill negotiating with President Reagan.  We all got together and everybody said, as long as everybody’s in the deal, everybody’s in the deal, and everybody is making some sacrifice, we can find a way.”

The comment would seem to suggest that Biden was one of the few, key players “in the room” working in a bipartisan way to reform Social Security.

On “Meet the Press” on April 29, 2007, then-Sen. Biden made a similar claim, saying he was “one of five people — I was the junior guy — in the meeting with Bob Dole and George Mitchell when we put Social Security on the right path for 60 years.”

But according to the historical record, Biden was not one of the small group of people in “the room,” or in “the meeting” — nor was he even a key player in reforms.

Those close to the Social Security reform process say that the chief negotiations were made between then-Sens. Bob Dole, R-Kansas, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., through the National Commission on Social Security Reform, which worked throughout 1982 on recommendations to help guarantee the solvency of the program, and conducted final negotiations in January 1983. The commission kept President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neill, D-Mass., in the loop throughout the process.

President Reagan signed their work into law in April 1983. There were 15 members of the commission, including Dole, Moynihan, and two other senators; Biden was not one of them. Nor was he at the signing ceremony.

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Pelosi: A Vote for Dems is a Vote for Medicare, Social Security, Women

Well, let’s look at these three things. Medicare was raided by Democrats to pay for ObamaCare as the program slips faster and faster towards insolvency. Social Security? Social Security is currently paying out more than it takes in and is slipping faster towards insolvency. Women? More women are unemployed, uninsured and making less under Obama.

That Botox is poisoning Pelosi’s pea-size brain.

From The Hill:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) told the Democratic National Convention Wednesday evening that a vote for Democrats in the November election is a vote to preserve Medicare and Social Security, and is also a vote in favor of women.

“Medicare is on the ballot.” she told the convention. “Democrats will preserve and strengthen Medicare. Republicans will end the Medicare guarantee. It’s just plain wrong. When you go to the polls, vote for Medicare. Vote for President Obama!

Nancy is still lying. The ending Medicare scheme was Politifact’s Lie of the Year in 2011.

“Social Security is on the ballot,” she added. “Democrats enacted it. Democrats will fight to preserve it. Some Republicans want to replace the guarantee of Social Security with the gamble of private accounts.  It’s just plain wrong. When you go to the polls, vote for Social Security. Vote for President Obama!

Social Security is also going bankrupt and Pelosi and Obama have done nothing in 4 years but drain the safety net.

Pelosi also said women’s rights are on the ballot, and said Democrats “reject the Republican assault on women’s health.” And, she said Democrats would better protect U.S. elections from money in politics, and “the American Dream.”

Never heard this talk when Obama was outraising McCain.

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Over 100 Million Now Receiving Some Form of Federal Welfare

Obama smiling from ear to ear. He, and his party, want/need a nation of dependents.

From the Weekly Standard:

A new chart set to be released later today by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee details a startling statistic: “Over 100 Million People in U.S. Now Receiving Some Form Of Federal Welfare.”

 

“The federal government administers nearly 80 different overlapping federal means-tested welfare programs,” the Senate Budget Committee notes. However, the committee states, the figures used in the chart do not include those who are only benefiting from Social Security and/or Medicare.

Food stamps and Medicaid make up a large–and growing–chunk of the more than 100 million recipients. “Among the major means tested welfare programs, since 2000 Medicaid has increased from 34 million people to 54 million in 2011 and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) from 17 million to 45 million in 2011,” says the Senate Budget Committee. “Spending on food stamps alone is projected to reach $800 billion over the next decade.”

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