The worsening financial condition of Medicare and Social Security must prompt Congress and President Obama to mend these vital safety nets.

News about the entitlement programs is bad, but hardly a surprise. Social Security is now expected to be unable to pay retirees full benefits by 2037, four years earlier than the government projected just a year ago.

Medicare is in even worse shape. The portion of the trust fund that pays hospitals for seniors' care is expected to run out of money in 2017, two years sooner than was forecast last year.

Both programs are losing money more rapidly due to the recession. With so many workers losing their jobs, fewer people are contributing payroll taxes to Medicare and Social Security. Rising health-care costs also are draining Medicare's trust funds.

But that's no excuse for Congress. Lawmakers have known for years that the entitlement programs are in trouble. The latest report on their precarious condition is just a more urgent warning that Washington can't keep kicking the problem down the road.

Task forces have studied the problem, but the recommendations just gather dust on shelves. A solution keeps getting postponed because the options are politically unpopular. Congress can either raise taxes, or cut benefits, or enact a combination of both.

The Obama administration says it would take an increase of 2 percentage points in payroll taxes, from 12.4 percent to 14.4 percent, to fill in the gap. Those taxes are split equally between employer and employee. In a recession, such a significant tax increase is an especially heavy lift.

Or the shortfall could be made up by cutting benefits 13 percent. That's not an attractive option, either, especially since the stock-market and real-estate plunges have shrunk retirees' nest eggs.

But the administration and Congress must summon the political will to tackle the problem. The longer Washington waits, the more drastic the eventual fix will be.

Four years ago, the Inquirer proposed a five-part plan for fixing Social Security after consulting with experts. It involved a mix of tax increases and benefit trims; for example, raising the payroll tax cap from the current $106,800 to $140,000 or more over 25 years. (Obama proposed a similar move during the presidential campaign.)

Switching to a new formula for calculating cost-of-living increases would slow the growth by about 0.2 percent per year. Dedicating a limited portion of the estate tax to the trust fund would add revenue.

The options are known and have been debated thoroughly. What's needed is the political courage to save the programs.

Social Security and Medicare help to prevent millions of seniors from falling into poverty in retirement. The programs must be fixed, sooner rather than later.

— The Philadelphia Inquirer

n n nIn an increasingly polarized America, it's hard to imagine a more divisive issue than abortion. Yet on Sunday, President Barack Obama seized the moment at Notre Dame's commencement to stake out what should be common ground: the need to reduce the numbers of abortions and unwanted pregnancies. Surely most Americans can agree on that goal. What a great thing it would be to harness the passions on both sides to make a difference.It's heartbreaking that 1.2 million abortions still take place in America every year. Of more than 6 million pregnancies a year, about one-third are unwanted. Teenagers account for only 20 percent of abortions; women in their 20s have the most unwanted pregnancies.To have fewer abortions and fewer lives disrupted by unwanted pregnancy, the nation needs a prevention strategy that goes beyond preaching abstinence, which was the mantra of the previous administration. Besides teaching personal responsibility, there's a need for better sex education programs for men, women and children, as well as more investment in effective contraception. Greater support for adoption is needed, including more help for women who choose to carry children to term. Legions of loving parents want those children.Obama has shown little progress so far on his campaign pledge to bridge America's ideological divide. On Sunday, he called for more "open hearts, open minds and fair-minded words" on abortion. But if he could inspire both sides to put substantial resources toward reducing abortions without taking away women's rights, that would really be something.