Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Both Social Security and Medicare are not budgeted in the annual budgets of the U.S. because those programs are supposed to be funded separate from the annual spending budgets created by Congress. Social Security is supposed to be funded by payroll taxes paid by both employers and employees. Medicare is supposed to be funded by insurance premiums paid by participants.

That being said, both programs might as well be included as line items in the federal budget because their funding has proven inadequate for many years, the shortfall in their funding being paid by special funding bills passed by Congress each year.