When I applied for Medicare, I thought two months was plenty of time. Boy, was I wrong. I went to sign up, and they asked me a few identifying questions about what car I'd had, what address I'd lived...the average stuff.

But after a few "none of these are me" answers, the system shut me out. I'd have to contact my local SS office.

When I did, I was told the next available phone appointment was 3.5 months away, almost 6 weeks after my eligibility. I ended up having to extend COBRA for three months, just to insure coverage.

And the m-effers actually had the gall to charge me for the month and a half I wasn't covered!

For SS, I logged in BEFORE I could apply, and filled out almost all of the application before getting a suspension/return number. Then, the first day I COULD apply, I did.

I've already received confirming paperwork, and will get my first SS check this October.

"Just like no one has bothered Medicaid."

Are you blind? They've just committed to $850 billion in reduced spending...and there are only two places to get it: Medicaid, or the Defense Budget, which they've pledged to INCREASE.

"The only ones who wont, and shouldn't get medicaid are illegals"

That's not true at all. There will be thousands of folks due Medicaid, who will encounter A LOT more red tape. Some will be forced to forego treatment or rehabilitation due to job requirements. Others will be denied benefits, if for no other reason than the town's main employer is laying off, not hiring.

And if rural hospitals close, folks will have to bear a much higher burden (travel and lodging) to get care.

" the boomers raiding the lockbox back during the Clinton/W era"

Give credit where credit is due:

Bill Clinton handed off true surplus budgets (i.e., the overcollections of SS at the time weren't counted) to Dubya and Cheney, who changed the budget from surpluses as far as the eye could see, to (at that time) the largest deficits known to man, before handing off a dumpster fire of an economy.

Ultimately, Dubya and Cheney reset America's fiscal sights from Surplusville to Debtsylvania. And Republicans since then have either filibustered attempts to increase taxes, or actively written codes which borrow additional trillions, mostly to give away in tax cuts for the world's wealthiest 1%.

Republicans deserve ALL the credit.

"Wake me up when the deposits are late."

You're joking, right?

One of the HUGE advantages of Social Security is we can see the future quite easily. For example, we knew when Reagan changed the withholding rates, that meant we'd be over-collecting Social Security taxes until around 2010, when we'd have to start dipping into the reserves. We saw that coming decades in advance, just like we saw the baby boomer retirement coming for decades. We're currently in the 11th year of a 17 year stretch where 10,000 baby boomers a day turn 65. We can see actuarial shortfalls within a dozen years, especially if we don't address the imbalance in the equation.

Currently, 1 additional point for both the employer and the worker would put the Social Security equation in balance into actuarial perpetuity (75 yrs). There are other possibilities as well, including slowly raising the retirement age. Any significant wait before enacting reforms will force the changes to become more drastic.