--- title: Scary Numbers of the Day description: It's not a surprise, exactly, but scary nonetheless: The recession is taking its toll on the Medicare and Social Security trust funds, which are careening... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7192619/scary-numbers-of-the-day/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2009-05-12T20:00:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-18T11:15:08.066Z article:section: Politics og:title: Scary Numbers of the Day og:description: It's not a surprise, exactly, but scary nonetheless: The recession is taking its toll on the Medicare and Social Security trust funds, which are careening... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7192619/scary-numbers-of-the-day/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scary Numbers of the Day twitter:description: It's not a surprise, exactly, but scary nonetheless: The recession is taking its toll on the Medicare and Social Security trust funds, which are careening... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Politics](/section/politics/) # Scary Numbers of the Day by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) May 12, 2009 8:00 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) May 12, 2009 8:00 PM UTC It’s not a surprise, exactly, but scary nonetheless: The recession is taking its toll on the Medicare and Social Security trust funds, which are [careening even faster](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/us/politics/13health.html?hp) toward insolvency: --- > “” --- **UPDATE:** The Washington Post [notes](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/12/AR2009051200252.html?hpid=topnews): --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7192619/scary-numbers-of-the-day/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7192619/scary-numbers-of-the-day/"},"headline":"Scary Numbers of the Day","datePublished":"2009-05-12T20:00:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-18T11:15:08.066Z","description":"It's not a surprise, exactly, but scary nonetheless: The recession is taking its toll on the Medicare and Social Security trust funds, which are careening...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7192619/scary-numbers-of-the-day/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7192619/scary-numbers-of-the-day/","name":"Scary Numbers of the Day"}}]}] ```