The constantly criticized worker/beneficiary ratio is a load of garbage as an argument for the unsustainability of the system. Here's a historical chart of the ratio (source):
By that argument, there should have been a crisis in about 1960 when the ratio fell by half from 8:1 to 4:1. But there wasn't. The only adjustment needed was in 1983 to fund it for the forseeable future - and it worked for nearly thirty years, since 2009 is the first year since then which has a deficit on the account.
The exactly on-schedule declines to 3:1 and 2:1 won't break the bank, either. Projected from now through 2080, Social Security's income will be above 75% of its outlays; we need only the sort of minor tweak as was done in 1983 to make up the difference. One adjustment every 30 years is a pretty good deal for a program this big.
In short: "screw the seniors." Ezra:
[House Budget Committee Ranking Member Paul] Ryan's budget does something remarkable: It eliminates the massive long-term deficit....
Ryan's budget proposes reforms that are nothing short of violent. Medicare is privatized. Seniors get a voucher to buy private insurance, and the voucher's growth is far slower than the expected growth of health-care costs. Medicaid is also privatized. The employer tax exclusion is fully eliminated, replaced by a tax credit that grows more slowly than medical costs. And beyond health care, Social Security moves to a system of private accounts that CBO says will actually cost more than the present arrangement, further underscoring how ancillary the program is to our budget problem....
But this is rationing, and that's not a slur. This is the government capping its payments and moderating their growth in such a way that many seniors will not get the care they need.
Finally! We have the Republican plan for health care, and it guarantees less coverage, higher prices, and abandonment of seniors! Woohoo!
Update: Rep. Jim Hensarling confirms the plan. How do they write this stuff with straight faces? I can only imagine a bunch of Republicans in a room laughing and quoting lines that end in "...and reduce the surplus population!"