Fast-forward five years to the 2008 Social Security report, and the Trustees were projecting that Social Security would gointo the red in 2017, which was then only nine years away.
The Democratic economists do not allow the trust fund to gointo the red at all, implying that their analysis demands bigger cuts in benefits to ensure that the system stays solvent.
One man queuing to gointo the Red Sox game on Saturday specifically told me the British had got used to living with a threat because of the IRA. He felt America was moving into that phase.
The borrowing limit thus acts like the trust fund balance in Medicare Part A or Social Security, except that it allows the program to go a fixed amount into the red.