Posted on 12/30/2016 2:28:55 AM PST by expat_panama
Social Security benefits will be cut at the start of 2017 for everyone who has yet to turn 62.
Those cuts will grow in each year to 2022, reaching 7% for everyone now 56 and under, as the official retirement age rises two months per year to 67.
Those benefit cuts are part of the daunting math for Social Security and the federal budget that could cause speed bumps for, or perhaps even curb, President-elect Donald Trump's big fiscal plans.
1) Once the retirement age rises to 67, Social Security's early retirement penalty will cut annual benefits by 30%...
2) The Congressional Budget Office affirmed last week that Social Security's Trust Fund is on course to run out in 2029...
3) If you take that 29% cut on top of a 30% early retirement penalty, those retiring at 62 would get just 50% of their current full-retirement benefit, essentially abandoning the idea of a Social Security safety net for early retirees.
4) In January, the CBO will... ...show a Social Security cash shortfall of $450 billion in 2027 alone...
...the day of reckoning for Social Security, which has always been comfortably off in the distance, now appears to be just around the corner...
...GOP proposals to reform Social Security would further hike the official retirement age, while raising the earliest retirement age, now 62, in tandem. That approach would avoid further increases in penalties for retiring early...
...Yet a rise in the earliest retirement age would most affect those who have difficulty extending their careers and little savings to fall back on. Social Security Administration data show that about 30% of beneficiaries in their early 60s rely on the program for at least 80% of total income.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Then again a sharp increase in the number of leopards in Africa might do the same thing.
The Age Discrimination Act makes it wrong to have a mandatory retirement age at all, much less one at 62 or 66.
Social Security benefits should be deferred until actual retirement. If that is 70 or even 75, then so be it. Want your benefit at 66? Retire. And, don’t bother parading the fiction that we buy an annuity and should get it notwithstanding. Its a tax. Plain and simple.
Instead of making the tough decisions to rid unneeded, duplicative wasteful government programs...Congress decides to turn America into a workers paradise.
Roll back the disability rules back to what they were in 1991 and poof -a big part of the problem goes away. Many of us remember back when “the bent one” said he would end welfare.
Yep, that’s were millions of welfare leeches went - and they are still there!
You misunderstand........ you can retire and continue to work, just not as long nor as hard. You can employ your self with someone new doing something from your skills bag an keep busy
Golf kills
The age increase was scheduled decades ago and is a good idea. Perhaps President Trump should extend the increase so the standard age goes to 68, 69, or even 70, but raising it to 67 was a responsible decision. [Note: illegals and others who have not worked for it should, obviously, never receive social security.]
Those wasted trillions were war profits for many American contractors and defense companies. They have better representation in D.C. than you average SS recipient.
By law, SS benefits are limited to the revenue collected thru the SS payroll taxes. SS has been running in the red since 2010, I.e., benefits paid out exceed revenue. The shortfall is made up by cashing in T-bills held in the SS Trust Fund. Once the SSTF is exhausted in 2029, benefits will be limited to the revenue collected, by law. It is estimated that this will result in a cut of about 20% in benefits.
The General Fund is impacted by the redemption of the SS T-bills. Since we must borrow money to fund the deficit, we are borrowing money to help redeem the SS T-bills, which total $2.4 trillion in the SSTF. The SSTF is part of our $20 trillion national debt.
When SS was raking in so much more money than it was paying out the worthless politicians used the excess to buy votes rather than finding a way to save and invest for later.
Back in the late 70s I saw this firsthand when an uncle died and his son was given enough in SS benefits to pay for his college. I was in the Air Force making less than $400 per month and paying into SS thus paying for my cousin's education. Other than the old GI Bill I had to have a full-time job while finishing my college.
18 - 30 year olds can work if they crawl out of their parents basements and start to contribute.
There’s plenty of jobs but millennials won’t work unless they get a six figure salary and become President or CEO of a company within the first few weeks of work. Anything longer takes effort and effort and work ethic is something that’s completely foreign to them.
Nothing wrong with retiring at 62 or younger if you can. I prefer to enjoy life while I still can than work until I’m 70+.
An easy fix would be to make SSN benefits all or partially tax free.
Just find the ‘lockbox’! We were assured by the Clintons there would be one to protect social security.
I am guessing that long before 2029, there will be a decision not to cut benefits across the board for retirees, but to somehow change the system to make it solvent before that momentous time.
This would only happen, though, with great leadership and great American understanding. If no change to the system, this “third rail” of politics will turn out to severely bite us all.
By the way, thank you for your post and your explanation of a system people want to keep too complicated to understand.
SS is going broke.
I’ll take the early money, Jack.
I’m good with Medicare cuts for American citizens as long as illegal immigrants are still afforded Medicaid (/sarc)
So your telling me when George Bush was talking about overhauling S.S and the esteemed senator Ted Kennedy assured us that S.S was financially sound he was lying through his teeth?
Just think how short the SS trust fund would be if O’bastard wouldn’t have said there was NO inflation for 6 of the 8 years that liberal puke was in office!
No SS raise while that ass swipe there must have saved billions.
“May...?” This from the people that solidly predicted a Clinton Presidency. This is an opinion piece. About as relevant as asking your neighbor’s opinion. We have to remember who these people were during the election when they showed their true colors. They are Trump Deniars...why give them any credibility?
Yup and allow re-importation of drugs. Problem is - to do that you’d have to be willing to see a massive short term GDP & stock market drop that I don’t think the politicians have the balls to do so they are going to do it the hard way (likely Bankruptcy)
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