Posted on 08/15/2015 6:04:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
This week, America marked two significant milestones in its history. Friday was the 80th anniversary of Social Security, a program that has helped millions of seniors, including my parents, retire with dignity. Saturday is the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, when the most violent conflict in human history ended as an American victory.
We refer to the Americans responsible for these accomplishments as the “Greatest Generation.” In less than two decades, they survived economic catastrophe, triumphed in a global conflict, and laid the foundation for unparalleled prosperity for their children in what would become an American century. When faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges, they took our nation to new heights. Because of their sacrifices, we have been able to enjoy what we call the American dream, promising that our children’s future will always be brighter than our own.
But while our nation stands on the shoulders of those before us, each generation must seize new opportunities and confront new challenges. Social Security and our other safety-net programs have helped many generations of American seniors, but neglect by Washington politicians in both parties has left them in peril, and reform is direly needed to prevent their collapse.
With Americans now living longer than ever before, the strain on Social Security’s finances is steadily increasing. We also have too few workers paying into the Social Security program, leaving it unable to fully finance the benefits promised to retirees. This is exacerbated by the fact that the labor-force-participation rate is lower than it has been in over 30 years. As a result, the Social Security Disability Insurance Trust Fund will have its reserves depleted as early as next year. When this happens, the fund will only be able to provide 81 percent of scheduled benefits. Avoiding a cut in benefits will cost nearly $30 billion a year. Congress must act to avoid an automatic cut in benefits for disabled Americans.
Social Security is too important for us to allow it to decay any further. We must transform this endangered system into a modern program that can meet the needs of our people in the 21st century. To this end, I have proposed several reforms to sustain and modernize Social Security, and help people plan for their retirement.
1. First, we must gradually increase the retirement age for individuals under 55, without changing it for current seniors like my mom. It is important that we keep our promises to current beneficiaries and those nearing retirement, but for Americans closer to my age, we need to have an honest conversation about saving Social Security. With the average American working longer than when Social Security was first conceived, it’ll take some changes to keep Social Security solvent and responsive to Americans’ needs.
2. Second, we should do more to protect seniors on the bottom of the income scale, who are too often consigned to poverty in old age. This can be done by reducing the growth of benefits for upper income seniors while making the program even stronger for lower-income seniors. This is not a cut, but simply a reduction in the growth of benefits for wealthier retirees.
3. Finally, we must empower our people to save more for retirement. Social Security should be one component of retirement security along with employment-based plans and personal financial assets like IRAs, mutual funds, and personal savings accounts. Americans should also be able to save for retirement without paying taxes on their retirement investments. My tax-reform plan eliminates taxes on interest, capital gains and dividends. Educating Americans on the benefits associated with retirement saving and planning is also important.
For what I’ve written here, I have no doubt I will be attacked by those on the left who believe we should do nothing to save Social Security. As someone whose mother counts on Social Security, I would never stand behind a proposal that would hurt my mother or seniors like her. I firmly believe that these reforms are the best solution to our nation’s entitlement crisis.
Like the Greatest Generation once did, our own generation stands at a crossroads. We can stand obstinate in the face of inevitable change, allowing political division to keep us from meeting our challenges, or we can embrace commonsense reforms that will continue to allow our seniors to retire with dignity. I am confident that doing so will go a long way toward making the 21st century another American century.
— Marco Rubio represents Florida in the U.S. Senate.
I wish people would stop talking about Social Security and some sort of “reserve cache” it has like it is something tangible. There is an excess still (for now) of intake vs. payouts, but whatever excesses were logged in prior years were doled out to the government to use, leaving IOUs in its wake.
Here’s how you fix it, but good luck. The last guy who tried it, got set up and run out of Congress. They want to CONTROL THE MONEY!
http://spectator.org/articles/36775/mccotter-trailblazes-social-security-prosperity
LOL! The upper income seniors will help save it. That’s not you or me right? Or is it?
NRO is rolling out the carpet to the GOPe backup squad. Yesterday Walker was given op ed on healthcare. Today Rubio on SS. Both prominently promoted amongst the dozens of hit pieces on Trump.
SS is supposed to be your own savings!!
RE” This can be done by reducing the growth of benefits for upper income seniors
Two questions:
1) Define UPPER INCOME SENIORS. Give us a figure. Chris Christie defines it as anyone who has retirement income above $250,000
2) Assuming that that is the figure, do we have enough Upper Income Seniors to save the system?
“Greatest Generation.” In less than two decades, they survived economic catastrophe
By ENSLAVING future generations in an unsurmountable perpetual debt that can NEVER BE PAID, but the Interest Payments will be made by the peasant serf’s to the Moneychangers.
National Review has become an even more liberal Red State.
the Social Security Disability Insurance Trust Fund will have its reserves depleted as early as next year.
THERE IS NO TRUST FUND, it is a fantasy and this lying pos knows it, there is his and everyone elses biggest problem, they CANNOT TELL THE TRUTH about ANYTHING!
Any, ANY, SS reform has to figure out a way to sort out those do hard physical work their whole life, from those that sit their fat ass on a chair all day!
The people that work all their life are wore out by the time they get to 65, if they even make it that long.
I’ve been paying into Social Security for 45 years. I’ll be 62 next year. Have never collected a dime of govt. money including unemployment, food stamps or whatever else people are getting these days. I’m not a wealthy man but i have always worked to provide for my family. Lost my wife last year to cancer and i’m not feeling so good myself. I love this country and am proud to never have been a burden to her.
Go Cruz!
Ending the twin bottomless pits of Social Security and Medicare is necessary. The only question is how to do so while minimizing the harm to their current beneficiaries.
That the US congress will no longer have an effectively more-than-doubled income tax, with the end of FICA, is not a problem. The federal government will simply have to reduce its size to meet its budget.
The way to begin the process is to continue with the payment portion of the scams. That is, congress figured that if it could just meet the month to month payments to beneficiaries, then the systems were “solvent”, and congress could spend all the money that was *supposed* to be saved to pay for them.
Oddly enough, this theft works in the short term, so should be continued until there are no longer any people left who were promised their SS and Medicare benefits.
And the FICA taxes will continue, for those who *would* have been new enrollees, except that money will no longer go to the government, but to *untaxable* private retirement and health care accounts.
So, with no new enrollees, both SS and Medicare will eventually end. Yet those people receiving SS and Medicare benefits will continue to do so until they die.
The next part of the deal is for those who are still working. If half or more of their career to retirement has elapsed, they still get their benefits. If they are not at the halfway point to retirement, their FICA goes to their retirement and health care, of not just the current year, but an additional year equivalent in reduced income taxes, until they are “zeroed out”, everything they paid before going into their personal accounts.
The final part of the deal is for those beneficiaries who still have income or considerable wealth. They are offered a choice to either continue to get their benefits, as such, or to get somewhat *better* in the equivalent of income tax and capital gains taxes cuts. Completely their choice, depending on their situation.
For every one that shuns their benefits as unneeded, more money is kept in the system for those who truly need.
The bottom line is that the federal government is punished the most for its lying and duplicity, so must be substantially reduced in its size, scale, and power.
If nothing is done about both issues, all the other reforms won't save SS.
Rubio will for sure pass all other Republican candidates now. No one really wants to fix this mess.
You start the cap at $250,000 and index it at the government stated inflation rate of 2% while true inflation is at 5%. Eventually the cap applies to everyone. Same dynamic applies to the SS benefits. Also, currently, as your income below $250,000 goes up, the relative benefits gets less. It is just an additional way to apply the same dynamic to reduce payouts.
Rubberio cooked his goose when he schemed with Schumer against the citizens.
He still thinks we must abandon the rule of law and surrender the country to fraudulently documented foreigners.
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