Are cuts to Social Security and Medicare on the table?

[hfojvt]

58. those numbers cited don't make any sense

and don't match their primary sources. http://www.ssa.gov/retirementpolicy/research/debt-trend.html

Average household debt is about $100,000 and 80% of near-retirement households have debt?

Most people in this country simply can NOT afford $100,000 in debt.

Then think of a person buying a house - when they are in their 30s. So they pay on that house for twenty years and they are now in their 50s, nearing retirement and yet they STILL owe $100,000 on that house? Does not compute.

So I check their primary sources. Don't really find a category for "near retirement" although there is a lot of data there and I may have missed it. Looking at the 55-64 age group I find that only 53.6% of households have mortgage debt, and 41.3% have credit card debt and 40.7% have installment loans (mostly for cars).

But then checking table 6, I find that the median net worth for those age 55-64 is $179,400 and the average net worth is $880,500. That is NET worth, meaning assets minus debt. That number dwarfs the average debt. There are lots of very rich people pulling the average up, but even the median is pretty astounding. 50% of households ages 55-64 have net worth over $179,400!!

So yeah, 77.7% of them have debt, but for 50% of them, they also have assets worth much more than their debt.