[skeeter]

What the government has done and may be planning to do re: SSI is immoral in so many ways, and we're not supposed to complain?

For example, selling amnesty by claiming illegals are necessary in order to keep SSI solvent, then claiming we make to much to receive anything anyway.

I may not be able to do anything about it but I sure as hell won't sit chewing cud like livestock for the welfare state.

[justlurking]

What the government has done and may be planning to do re: SSI is immoral in so many ways, and we're not supposed to complain?

[I'm pinging a few other people that I think might be interested in the data below]

To be clear: SSI (Supplemental Security Income) is not funded by Social Security. It's administrated by Social Security, but the money comes from the general fund.

But, I think you might be using SSI as a generic term for all of Social Security. If so: yes, you can and should complain.

The point I'm trying to make is what I wrote earlier: we (collectively) missed the chance to reform Social Security into a sustainable program back in the 80's. There would have been some pain, but it would have been manageable. Today, the problem is much worse, and is bordering on catastrophic failure.

The only way out is shared sacrifice by EVERYONE: contributors and beneficiaries. Younger people will have to pay taxes, with no benefits coming. Current and near-future beneficiaries will have to accept lower benefits, or perhaps reduced cost-of-living increases.

Christie's proposal tries to impose the sacrifice on a subset of people that he deems unworthy, with the expectation that everyone else would vote for him. It's nothing more than the "tax the rich" class warfare advocated by progressives.

BTW, I thought to look at the SSA's evaluation of benefit changes to see if there was something close to Christie's proposal. It's not quite the same:

Reduce individual Social Security benefits if modified adjusted gross income, or MAGI (AGI less taxable Social Security benefits plus nontaxable interest income) is above $60,000 for single taxpayers or $120,000 for taxpayers filing jointly. This provision is effective for individuals newly eligible for benefits in 2020 or later. The percentage reduction increases linearly up to 50 percent for single/joint filers with MAGI of $180,000/$360,000 or above. Index the MAGI thresholds for years after 2020, based on changes in the SSA average wage index.

Christie's proposal is to start at $80,000 and eliminate benefits altogether at $200,000, although it's not clear if that is for single or joint filers.

But, if you look at the SSA's evaluation, you can see that it doesn't really help:

How to read this: the broken red line has to drop to be equal or below the broken blue line on the left graph, and it has to do it before the broken blue line reaches zero on the right graph.