Social Security funding crisis will arrive in 2033, US projects

the washington Post care trust funds, a body composed of top administration officials such as Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

Medicare recipients will face automatic benefit cuts starting in 2031 and Social Security won’t be able to make full retirement payments starting in 2033 unless Congress intervenes, according to a new government report released Friday.

The latest yearly forecast serves as a warning for lawmakers on Capitol Hill – and for the public – of the fragile financial health of the federal government’s two most expensive programs, which tens of millions of seniors depend on for medical care and retirement benefits.

“Lawmakers have many options for changes that would reduce or eliminate the long-term financing shortfalls,” the trustees state in the report. “With each year that lawmakers do not act, the public has less time to prepare for the changes.” of assistance to others. . . . He’s just always been so giving.”

A longtime resident of St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood, Kirk’s sharp memory is also a repository of local history.

“He’s still able to talk and tell stories,” Mitchell said. “If you don’t have that, how do you have a culture you can call on, that you can believe in?”

Kirk was born in Helena, Mont., on March 23, 1923. His father’s career with the Northern Pacific Railway moved the family west to Seattle just as he was starting grade school. When Kirk was 10 years old, they finally settled in St. Paul in the depths of the Great Depression.

Kirk enlisted in the U.S. Army shortly after graduating from Marshall High School in 1942. Sent to Texas for basic training, he first encountered the open racism of the segregated south when he and his fellow Black recruits were boarding a train in Kansas City.

“The conductor comes up and says, ‘You boys will have to ride in the Jim Crow car,’ ” he recalled. “I’d heard about Jim Crow cars, but I’d never seen one. I hadn’t ever been called ‘boy.’ ” Kirk hoped to join the paratroopers after basic training, but Black soldiers were still prohibited from doing so. He was instead assigned to a trucking company under Gen. George Patton.

Landing at Omaha Beach six days after D-Day, Kirk served in Europe for the rest of the war. During the Battle of the Bulge, his company was tasked with delivering troops to the front lines near Bastogne in the dead of winter, enduring frostbite and regular bombing by German planes.

After leaving the Army, Kirk spent a decade working as a streetcar driver for Twin City Rapid Transit, before embarking on a 30-year career as a skycap with Braniff and then Northwest airlines.

“That was a choice job,” he said of the skycaps.

In addition to discounted airfare, it afforded Kirk – a longtime Vikings season ticket-holder –opportunities to rub elbows with frequent flyers like Bud Grant and Ahmad Rashad, both of whom he counted as friends.

Kirk always found time to help those in need. In the mid-1960s, he and his wife Gwen, who died in 2005, co-founded an organization that donated playground equipment to St. Paul parks.

After retiring from Northwest Airlines in the 1990s, he went to work part-time for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, helping his fellow veterans navigate the VA healthcare system.

A longtime VFW member, he also became the first Black commander of the organization’s Minnesota chapter in 1995.

Throughout the years, Kirk has always made time for Holy Trinity, serving as an usher for decades. His fellow parishioners are quick to point out his giving spirit.

He has long been a mentor to younger members of the congregation, and the Kirks occasionally took at-risk youths into their home, helping them turn their lives around without judgement.

Holy Trinity parishioner George Thompson credited Kirk’s longevity for his ability to see past people’s faults.

“I think it enabled him to be very generous as a person and willing to give people the benefit of the doubt,” Thompson said. “He always gave people the benefit of the doubt.”

What do you know about cornea transplantation?

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A cornea transplant, or keratoplasty, is an operation to replace part of the cornea with corneal tissue from a donor. The cornea is the transparent, domeshaped surface of the eye. Light enters the eye through the cornea.

Nearly 80,000 corneal transplants were performed worldwide in 2021, according to the Eye Bank Association of America. More than 2 million people have recovered their sight through corneal transplants since 1961.

Why it’s done

A cornea transplant most often is used to restore vision to a person with a damaged cornea.

A cornea transplant also can relieve pain or other symptoms associated with cornea diseases.

Conditions that can be treated with a cornea transplant include: n A cornea that bulges outward, called keratoconus n Fuchs’ dystrophy, a genetic condition n Thinning or tearing of the cornea n Cornea scarring, caused by infection or injury n Swelling of the cornea n Corneal ulcers not responding to medical treatment n Complications caused by previous eye surgery

Medicare is the federal health insurance program for Americans 65 and older and those with disabilities, while Social Security provides critical monthly benefit checks for retirees, workers’ survivors and some people with disabilities. Social Security and Medicare’s coverage of hospital care are paid for by trust funds consisting of dedicated taxes paid by workers and employers, not from general tax revenue like most of the rest of the government. Unless lawmakers approve changes before the deadlines, Medicare and Social Security will be forced to cut benefits sharply for seniors because both programs are paying out more than they take in.

The report is released annually by the Boards of Trustees of the Social Security and Medi-

The report projects that Medicare funds will be exhausted in 2031, three years later than the trustees previously estimated, which would give lawmakers more time to address the program. The date for Social Security benefits to be exhausted, however, was moved up to 2033, or one year earlier than the trustees projected last year. Benefits won’t stop when the programs reach insolvency, but the government will be able to pay only a portion of the amount to which people are entitled. The trustees report predicts that, starting in 2033, Social Security’s old age and survivors insurance trust fund will be able to pay 77% of that amount. Starting in 2031, Medicare’s hospital insurance will be able to pay 89% of the scheduled benefits for hospital services, the report states.

The average monthly Social Security benefit check this year is $1,827. More than 60 million people are collecting

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Cornea

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How it’s done

A cornea transplant removes either the entire thickness or a partial thickness of the diseased cornea and replaces it with healthy donor tissue. The type of procedure your surgeon will recommend depends on your eye condition.

Types of corneal transplant surgery include: n Penetrating keratoplasty n Endothelial keratoplasty n Anterior lamellar keratoplasty. Two different methods of anterior lamellar keratoplasty remove diseased tissue from the front corneal layers, including the epithelium and the stroma. However, they leave the back endothelial layer in place. The depth of cornea damage determines which method is right for you. n Artificial cornea transplant. If you aren’t eligible for a cornea transplant with a donor cornea, you might receive an artificial cornea. This operation is known as keratoprosthesis.

This operation involves a fullthickness cornea transplant. Your surgeon cuts through the entire thickness of the irregular or diseased cornea to remove a small button-sized disk of corneal tissue. The donor cornea, cut to fit, is placed in the opening. Your surgeon then uses stitches to keep the new cornea in place.

There are two types of endothelial keratoplasty, and both remove diseased tissue from the back corneal layers. These layers include the endothelium and a layer of tissue called the Descemet membrane, which is attached to the endothelium. Donor tissue replaces the removed tissue.

Corneas used in transplants come from people who have died.

Corneas from people who died from unknown causes are not used. Corneas from people who had previous eye surgery, eye disease or certain conditions, such as diseases that are passed from one person to the next, also are not used. Cornea transplants don’t require tissue matching.