For the third time in my life, the Social Security System will go belly-up. The first time was in 1977 well, almost. To head off the bust, Jimmy Carter got Congress to pass a major FICA tax increase sorry, “contribution” increase in order to save Social Security. The rate would be hiked in phases from 2% to 6.15% (times two: employee and employer). He promised: “Now this legislation will guarantee that from 1980 to the year 2030, the Social Security funds will be sound.” (tinyurl.com Carter’s projection was off by a Georgia country mile. In 1983, the SSA program technically went bankrupt. Reagan signed a law that speeded up Carter’s rate increases, added Congressional employees to Social Security, and delayed the age of eligibility. (tinyurl.com Unless there is another Social Security tax increase in 2010, the system will go into red ink mode and stay there. The public has not been informed of this, which comes as no surprise. There have been a few scattered stories on the Web, but nothing sustained. The media do not want to admit that the jointly operated Social Security program and Medicare program are going to bankrupt the Federal government if they are not cut back drastically. They are never cut back. They always expand. Medicare’s Hospital Insurance program has been in red ink mode for two years. The public does not know this, either. To cover the program’s insolvency, the government is quietly funding the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund with bailouts from the general fund. www.lewrockwell.com