Posted on 04/30/2015 2:45:36 PM PDT by entropy12
If you want to understand where we are, think about the fact that every single Republican running for president supports the centerpiece programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society.
Which were never constitutional in the first place.
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
— James Madison, the father of the U.S. Constitution
Exactly. This cannot be said often enough! I would much rather have the money and take care of my own retirement and medical expenses, and keep the government out of my life, but this was my money, taken from me by force of law.
To all of those on the thread who are screaming that they paid in and they deserve to get theirs:
You were lied to. Your money was stolen and spent. It’s gone. Face it.
Now, in order to “get yours,” this generation has to be lied to and stolen from.
And by debt-based spending to help support it as well, your posterity is also being stripped of its God-given, unalienable right to government by consent.
Plus the accrued compound interest on it at the average rate over the time period we paid.
Social Security is not an entitlement for God’s sake. We pay into it and deserve at least the money we put into it. So sick of that crap.
Too bad. It's gone.
Plus the accrued compound interest on it at the average rate over the time period we paid.
The only way to get it is to rob others.
Actually it is. It was all a lie from Day One.
That’s always the problem. Nobody likes big government, but everybody has a couple of programs they like, and all programs are liked by somebody. Which is why government never shrinks.
Well I won’t argue it isn’t a lie but if you figure what people put into SS plus interest, I doubt highly MOST people get out what they contributed. Heck a good amount of people die without seeing a dime.
Oh it IS an entitlement! You and I have paid into those programs all of our lives and are entitled to collect from that 'insurance plan'!!!
Welfare, food stamps, etc are NOT entitlements because recipients did not earn the benefits, they collect without contributing.
The “investors” at the tail end of any Ponzi scheme never collect anything. If you are over 50, chances are good you will collect something. If you are under 40, good luck!
And the money went right out the door to the then current crop of retirees!
As long as there are sufficient numbers of those paying in(i.e., working) the system sort of works.
The creators of SS made certain assumptions about the paying in demographics & the receiving demographics mainly they wouldn’t change much, well they did!
Another problem the original poster person for SS - Ida Mae Fuller put about $25 into the system but received about $23K. She lived far longer then “assumptions” allowed for. Unfortunately for FDR’s brilliant scheme their were (& are!) 1000’s, 10,000’s and thanks to modern medicine 100,000’s of Ida Mae Fullers. It’s system that can not work. I think deliberately done to make the “retired” demographic a permanent government dependency. “Evil” insurance company executives warned FDR’s Congress (and FDR & his cronies) it would not work.
What truly get’s me is that the SS system was supposedly a copy of the Bismarkian system. This system worked and seems to have continued to work through defeat in 2 world wars and a world-wide depression. The explanation of ‘Well their Germans!’ isn’t really good enough.
That’s not the way the numbers work.
At the end of this process your grandchildren are inevitably left as paupers and slaves.
Everyone always thinks they’ll get one of the remaining chairs in musical chairs.
But eventually there are no chairs left.
Most seniors get far more in benefits than they ever paid in.
I could buy a pack of cigarettes for 20 cents now they cost 4.50 at about the cheapest.
No candidate can win presidency if he/she purports to cut social security or medicare. No wonder they are ALL for keeping those programs going...until the system goes bankrupt, but they will be long gone by then.
I just signed up for Medicare Part A, after paying for it since 1969. I’m still working and still have OK employer-provided insurance.
Does Part A pay for anything? Is it of any value?
Right you are about cigarettes. But a mini computer cost $250,000 in 1970, and now you can buy a PC for $500 with 100 times more computing power.
I’m more interested in reducing the size of the bureaucracy such as IRS, EPA, TSA,DHS,BLM,BATFE, HUD,Education, Energy, HHS (Obamacare). Then talk to me about reforming SS and Medicare.
The way to stop both SS and Medicare is to poison their roots.
That is, the scam is to essentially double the income tax, while immediately spending the money on other things. They figure that as long as they pay the month to month obligations incurred, by the small number of people drawing benefits, the programs are solvent, despite wracking up gigantic deficits.
So, the way to end it is to assure those receiving benefits that they will continue to get their month to month payments, but to stop enrolling new people into the system.
It might even be accelerated by offering those who have only been in the system for a short time a way out, while recovering the FICA taxes they have paid, to go into an IRA and an Individual Health Account.
The biggest immediate benefit is to slash federal tax revenues by about a third, starving the beast. So it needs to be accompanied with a massive reduction in the size and power of the federal government.
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