Medicare, Social Security face shaky fiscal futures

By ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The financial condition of the government's bedrock retirement programs for middle- and working-class Americans remains shaky, with Medicare pointed toward insolvency by 2026.

That's the word from the latest report by the government's overseers of Medicare and Social Security. It paints a sobering picture of the programs, though it's relatively unchanged from last year's update. Social Security would become insolvent in 2035, one year later than previously estimated.

Both programs will need to eventually be addressed to avert automatic cuts should their trust funds run dry. Neither President Donald Trump nor Capitol Hill's warring factions has put political perilous cost curbs on their to-do list.

The report is the latest update of the government's troubled fiscal picture. It lands in a capital that has proven chronically unable to address it.