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Also ignoring that social security payments as a percentage of GDP is not hitting some limit it has not over the past eight decades. The US was able to pay out social security in 1942 with a much smaller economy, there is no reason it should be unable to in the future. Some groups have been complaining about social security for eighty years - probably because it is the one benefit the average worker gets back from the federal government.

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Social security expenditures will grow from 4% of gdp to 6% of gdp from 2000-2035. By 2035 Medicare will grow to 8% of GDP. So in a bit over a decade, one out of every six dollars produced in the economy will be going to take care of retired people.

Social security was a higher percentage of gdp in the early 1980s than it is now. Even if it goes back up it is to a level it was at before. People can come to different estimates about what future gdp growth rates will be and have different estimated.

All health care costs in the US are going up. The US government has to pay HMO corporation profits, Americans have to pay higher drug prices unlike other countries. The government can continue paying current Medicare rates, or it can hand more money to health companies if it wants to. As the government is still handing extra money to health companies apparently no one thinks it is a problem as of yet.

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