Why do we have to work on SS and Medicare now?

It has become a trite, accepted belief from the middle and the right, that we have to deal with Social Security and Medicare in order to deal with the budget deficit and federal debt with regards to the federal debt ceiling.  But WHY?

Medicare and Social Security have their own trust funds.  Yes, their trust funds will run out at some point in the future, as the baby boomers create pressure on their funds that is greater than what was previously anticipated.  But no, solving these problems today won't make a dent in the federal budget today, tomorrow, the next year or the next decade.  In fact, if both Medicare and Social Security were to exhaust their surplus fund dollars, they would be faced with what is essentially a balanced budget requirement to hand out only as much as it takes in.  At the height of the imbalance, retirees would end up receiving less than they were promised and had paid into the system, estimated to be at just 75% of promised money for SS.

Yes, dealing with the problems now, could make it easier to deal with the problems, if -and only if - people were required to pay more into the system.  For instance, were the cap to be removed or raised from payroll taxes (currently at $106,800 of earned income), then people earning hundreds and millions and billions of dollars would now have to pay more into the system.  But that's not what the middle and the right want; what they want to do, is raise the eligibility age for anyone under 50.  Under that idea, there is no reason to rush into making those changes, because you could do it 10 years from now, and place the burden onto anyone under 60, to make it work.

You might even hear the claim that this is about the money that the federal government borrows from the trust funds, I suspect.  But what the trust fund does, is invest in US government securities, i.e. the federal debt.  It is not the same as saying that monies paid to Social Security and Medicare go into the general fund.  They do not ADD to the debt, but instead, FUND the debt.

Yes, they need fixing, and there are many ways to fix them, but there is no point to rushing to solve these problems now.  We should take the time to articulate the problems and potential solutions without 11th hour deadlines.