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Amtrak travels up to 110 mph in Indiana & Michigan

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According to the President's FY12 budget, the estimated spend on mandatory programs, which includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, TARP and Other, i.e. military and federal retirement expenditures, was $2.1 trillion.  Of this amount $1.5 trillion or 71% of the mandatory budget was for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The mandatory programs account for 57.2 per cent of the total budget. The budget can be found at the OMB. The estimated FY12 spend for Social Security and Medicare is $1.2 trillion. The estimated payroll taxes that are collected for Social Security and Medicare are $862 billion, leaving a shortfall of $367 billion. Outlays for both programs have exceeded receipts for the last two years.  The trust fund(s)' managers have been been forced to present some of the the non-marketable notes held in the funds to the Treasury to cover the shortfall.  The Treasury, in turn, has had to borrow the money in the open market, thereby increasing the federal deficit by the amount of the shortfall plus interest on the borrowings. According to the Social Security and Medicare Trustee's Annual Report, both funds are expected to experience receipt/benefit shortfalls going forward, thereby changing the estimated date when the funds will be exhausted. In a sense they are out of money now, in that the surplus funds collected since the mid 80s were lent to the federal government in exchange for the aforementioned non-marketable notes. Estimates on when the monies in the trust funds will be exhausted changes each year. They are problematic, which is to say that they are based on statistical projections that produce a range of dates as opposed to a specific date, although for publication purposes the press reports a date certain. They do so, in all probability, because most Americans know little about statistics and statistical forecasts. In fact, the actuaries work up three scenarios, i.e. best case, intermediate case, and worst case.  The published estimated date for fund exhaustion is the intermediate case.  The interest earned on the notes held by the Social Security and Medicare Trust Fund(s) is illusory.  The Treasury pays the interest on the notes in the trust funds. It gets the money for the interest by borrowing it in the security markets. In effect, it is like a person who uses his or her credit card to pay their mortgage.  The debt associated with the mortgage goes down in direct proportion to the increase in the credit card debt.  At the end of the day the debtor is no better off.  She has just moved the debt.  It is a zero sum game.  In the case of the trust funds, the taxpayers are still holding the notes.
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