NYT Reports That Senators Are Working On A Fiscal Cliff Deal — And Paul Krugman Is Already Furious

[dkf]

46. Wow the projections I posted showing increasing expenses in Medicare SS and Medicaid assume cuts.

5 The 2011 Medicare Trustees Report projects that, assuming full implementation of ACA provisions, the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund will remain solvent until 2024 under current law – five years earlier than was projected in the 2010 Trustees Report. The projected share of scheduled benefits that can be paid from trust fund income is 90 percent in 2024, declines to about 76 percent in 2050, and then increases to 88 percent by 2085. As for Social Security, under current law, the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds are projected to be exhausted in 2036, at which time the projected share of scheduled benefits payable from trust fund income is 77 percent, declining to 74 percent in 2085.

http://www.gao.gov/financial/fy2011/11guide.pdf