Posted on 04/20/2015 7:27:43 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Both Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are speaking bluntly about entitlement reform, advocating means-testing for Social Security retirement benefits as a way to save the system for those who need it.
“These are real ideas,“ Christie said in New Hampshire on Friday. “And, you know, I’ve had a lot of people say, ‘Well, why would you possibly want to suggest those things?’ Because we have to. We have to. And if you want to start a national conversation, let’s start one that matters.”
“We’re $18 trillion in debt,” Graham told Fox News Sunday. “Eighty million baby boomers are going to retire in the next 20 to 30 years. We’re going to wipe out Social Security and Medicare. We have to adjust the age of retirement for younger people. People of my income level are going to have to have their benefits means-tested.” […]
Christie said it’s a question of cost—and of making the system “fairer for everybody.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Sailors on shore leave spend their own money.
I agree with you, only I want to go farther. Lets recommend that all of these programs be phased into a cost break even program where the cost is born by everyone on a percentage basis.
We would maybe find that we do not want a much from the government if we actually have to pay for it.
And forget about plans like Christi’s where he wants the well off to cover the expense. Plays right into the left position. (Go after the rich)
Well, that may invite comments about sailors being paid “by the government” hence by tax dollars, but it is still their own pay and they can’t get more money by fiat like the government does.
we are not $18T in debt because of social security payments to the 1%. There are just not that many wealthy people. So cutting off their SS payments will not add to much. However they do not represent as many votes so it is easier to take their money.
How about if you didn’t pay into the system, you get no benefits out of it. “Means testing” is theft pure and simple. I don’t care if you’re a billionaire, if you paid into the system making your billions, you deserve the benefits more than people who never contributed a dime. My 2 cents.
And as a retired Sailor I can say the end result is the same, however, one is more pleasurable than the other.
The only true entitlement reform will be bankruptcy of the US Government.
Since “the system” was just a back door for redistribution, it’ll come down whether by politicians repealing it or by another financial meltdown. Obama’s already the first president in history that suspended the COLA for SS payouts anyhow.
About the only way to have Social Security (and Medicare) reform is “from the bottom up”. That is, stop enrolling anyone who has any other form of retirement.
The original concept of Social Security was to provide a retirement for minimum wage workers who had no other form of retirement. But then congress kept forcing more and more people into the system, the socialists wanting a national retirement system for all.
Then Medicare was piggybacked onto Social Security so that with the first SS check, people were automatically enrolled in Medicare. An effort to have socialized medicine.
And congress was so corrupt that every dime that came in for SS and Medicare (the insidious FICA tax) was immediately spent. The rationalization being as long as congress would appropriate just enough money to pay for that month’s SS and Medicare benefits, the system was “solvent”.
So, in effect, FICA doubled the income tax.
On to practicalities.
When you stop enrolling most people into SS, what happens?
1) They no longer have to pay the FICA tax. So their net income is about doubled. A golden opportunity, instead of spending cash, this money must go into an IRA *and* a private retirement medical account of some kind.
2) Then those people who are already in the system will be able to “opt out”, and get a federal tax deduction equal to the amount of money they have put into the system, with this money going to their IRA and private retirement medical account. The deal must be sweet enough for them to *want* to opt out as well.
3) Those beneficiaries already being paid will get an “opt in” to a “plus one” means test. That is, if they have no income other than their existing retirement, Medicare, and Social Security, they can keep it. But if they still have significant taxable income from other sources, they can get a tax deduction slightly greater that the money they would have gotten, if they decide to leave the SS and Medicare systems.
So the bottom line is that these entitlement systems are wound down, without screwing anybody, and slashing the tax revenues going to the federal government.
Means testing for SS = punishing anyone who took personal responsibility for their own retirement.
I guarantee this ‘means testing’ will hit the middle class savers a lot harder than the vilified 1%.
How do I know this? The 1% will comprise around, I dunno, 1% of SS payouts. In order to save real money, this means testing would have to steal from the middle class.
This is what happens as you enter the final stages of a Ponzi scheme.
At least sailors tend to spend it on beer and women. The federal gov’t mostly just wastes the money.
Economic growth is the only way out of this situation, the creation of wealth. However, none of the progressive (Marxist) philosophy, ascendent in both parties, will not allow any economic growth. I will do my part by working until I am 70 years old. I wish all my fellow Americans good luck. The situation will not change peacefully.
So the suggestion is for government entitlements to stay in place either way.
“Economic growth is the only way out of this situation, the creation of wealth.”
Donald Trump made this very point this morning. I’m going to take another look at his candidacy.
Why not suggest denying entitlements to illegal aliens?
Why not suggest a time limit on entitlements for those who have made collecting them a lifestyle?
No, these jerks target working people first. Expect nothing less from today's political class.
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