Recession Hits Social Security, Medicare

Scary projections from the government: The Great Recession has wiped out the financial underpinnings of the Medicare and Social Security programs. According to the official yearly appraisal of the two giant entitlement programs, Medicare’s trust fund is now projected to run out of money in 2017, two years earlier than projected a year ago; Social Security will be insolvent in 2037, a full four years earlier than last year’s estimate. It’s far worse news than during the weaker recession earlier this decade, which hardly dented the trust funds that support the programs, and the report shows that fewer workers are paying into both systems.