Can Seniors Really Handle a Medicare Cut?

Written by David Frum on Tuesday May 17, 2011

Social Security provides more than 60% of the income for Americans over age 65. Can we really count on seniors to pay a rising share of their Medicare costs?

Jared Bernstein makes the point that Social Security provides more than 60% of the income for Americans over age 65. (h/t "Debs")

There are a lot of implications here, but here's one more to consider:

The Paul Ryan plan endorsed by so many GOP thought leaders is premised on the idea that sometime after 2021, we can begin to ask senior citizens to pay a large and ever rising share of their Medicare costs. Looking at Bernstein's estimate of senior citizen income, one has to ask: How? Especially when we consider that the people now aged 54 are going to have to save up that money over a decade of slack job markets and presumably weak income growth.

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