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Democrats Push Plan to Increase Social Security Benefits and Solvency
The New York Times ^ | 03 Feb 2019 | Robert Pear

Posted on 02/03/2019 7:09:40 PM PST by Theoria

After years of Republican-led debate over how to pare back Social Security’s rising costs, Democrats are flipping the script with an ambitious plan to expand the New Deal-era social insurance program while making gradual changes to keep it solvent for the rest of the century.

The Social Security 2100 Act, which was introduced this past week in the House and the Senate, represents a sea change after decades dominated by concern that aging baby boomers would bankrupt the government as they begin drawing benefits from Social Security and other entitlement programs. It would be the first major expansion of Social Security since 1972 and the most significant change in the program since 1983, when Congress stepped in to avert a financial crisis by raising taxes and the eligibility age for Social Security.

The bill would provide an across-the-board benefit increase equivalent to about 2 percent of the average Social Security benefit. It would raise the annual cost-of-living adjustment to reflect the fact that older Americans tend to use more of some services like health care. And it would increase the minimum benefit to ensure that workers with many years of low earnings do not retire into poverty.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: buyingvotes; cola; congress; debt; democrats; economy; entitlement; oneweirdtrick; ponzischeme; socialistinsecurity; socialsecurity
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To: JBW1949

No,it’s based on your highest 35 years of earnings. Please get your facts straight.


81 posted on 02/03/2019 9:10:01 PM PST by edhawk
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To: Theoria

Here we go again...I’ve been hearing this since I was in my 20s...it’s 40 years now...same song and dance...different actors


82 posted on 02/03/2019 9:10:49 PM PST by goodnesswins (White Privilege EQUALS Self Control & working 50-80 hrs/wk for 40 years!)
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To: rintintin
That money has already been spent.

In plain terms it was stolen.

The proper thing is for the miscreants to return what they stole.

83 posted on 02/03/2019 9:15:22 PM PST by null and void (Build the wall, or don't get paid at all.)
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To: Kickass Conservative

I forgot. My two closest Childhood Friends both died at age 61. They made a pretty good living and I’m sure they paid over $250,000 into the SS / Medicare System over ther Lifetimes just as I have.

What did they get for having all that money “excised” from their hard earned Wages, NOTHING.

As an aside, I had our Financial guy run some numbers based on what I paid into the SS / Medicare Systems over a working Career of nearly fifty years. Of course he had to make some assumptions for the last ten years since I was in my mid fifties at the time.

He figured that I would (conservatively) have had a nest egg of well over $2,000,000 at age 66 and he never imagined the Dow would ever reach $25,000. The Miracle of Compound Interest and buying Apple at $15 I assume.


84 posted on 02/03/2019 9:20:22 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (THEY LIVE, and we're the only ones wearing the Sunglasses.)
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To: GOPe Means Bend Over Spell Run

No. That would be a REAL change.
Media doesn’t like REAL things, they like ambiguities that they can influnce.


85 posted on 02/03/2019 9:23:08 PM PST by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: Vigilanteman

“Chile did something similar and “ ... you never hear about it from the media.

Yeah, Chile’s plan is praactical, realistic, and works.


86 posted on 02/03/2019 9:26:04 PM PST by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: Kickass Conservative

If you could persuade businesses to stop practicing age discrimination - laying off people in their late 50s or earlier and refusing to hire anyone over 38 - then the idea of raising social security eligibility age might make some sense. But not as long as seniors are being downsized into unemployment as a matter of business practice


87 posted on 02/03/2019 9:27:58 PM PST by rintintin (q)
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To: rintintin

You explanation of insurance is inaccurate. Insurance companies do not transfer money. They spread the specific risk of various hazards across a larger group.

Social Security is not insurance because it does not spread risk and it is not insuring against risk. With insurance very few people will ever collect. Most people will pay a nd collect nothing. Insurance companies do not simply move monet from one payer to another.

Compulsory means taking by force. Your use of the word only highlights that force issuing used to take from one person and give to another.

This line of reasoning sounds like Orwellian.


88 posted on 02/03/2019 9:45:51 PM PST by FreedomNotSafety
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To: FreedomNotSafety

Of course insurers transfer money. Spreading risk involves transferring money. If you and I both pay premiums to Geico and you get in an accident but I don’t, my premiums help cover Geico’s payout to you.


89 posted on 02/03/2019 9:56:08 PM PST by rintintin (q)
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To: Theoria

They lie - democrats will SAY anything to win... if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor ... Insurance costs will go down for everyone... you can keep your health plan... blah blah blah... all lies.


90 posted on 02/03/2019 9:59:22 PM PST by GOPJ (Does anyone really want America to be more like Tallahassee, South Bend or Newark? - - Greenfield)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
And how does this get paid for?

Democrats will do a full Venezuela...steal from the rich first - then from everyone else. When children are eating zoo animals and no one except government 'officials' have jobs they'll beef up the police to fight angry citizens. Socialism's pretty predictable.

91 posted on 02/03/2019 10:04:21 PM PST by GOPJ (Does anyone really want America to be more like Tallahassee, South Bend or Newark? - - Greenfield)
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To: GOPJ

Democrats do always lie.

Thank you.
I have been trying to think of a yard sign and now I have it.

“Democrats always lie.”


92 posted on 02/03/2019 10:06:40 PM PST by missthethunder
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To: reg45

California pays more than 12%.

This state has a lot of problems and bad government but it still pays its way.


93 posted on 02/03/2019 10:14:40 PM PST by desertfreedom765
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To: GodAndCountryFirst

So, what’s your plan on keeping all
those dependent on the program from
being homeless, and sleeping in the
streets? It’s all they have in some
cases. Can you afford to feed, house,
and care for your aging mom? Would
you even be willing to take on the
task? It’s their money that they paid
(involuntarily) into the system.
If you’re going to be unhappy
about social security, be unhappy
that those who did not work and
contribute their share, reap it’s
benefits.


94 posted on 02/03/2019 11:02:29 PM PST by Lean-Right (Eat More Moose)
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To: shelterguy

Yep, sad but true.

Look folks, we didn’t set up the system. We had no choice but to pay into Social Security. You may not like it, but we would have loved to invest our own money. We were not given that option for much of our working years.

I’m all for privatization too. Good luck with that.

They Fed wants to spend that money.


95 posted on 02/03/2019 11:23:37 PM PST by DoughtyOne
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To: GodAndCountryFirst

I disagree. I paid into SS for forty years. I am now unable to work and receiving the benefits I already paid for. I will never get back even 5% of what I put in, but I need the payments now. They are not entitlements .


96 posted on 02/03/2019 11:28:01 PM PST by BIV (typical white person)
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To: GodAndCountryFirst

The money from your Stocks also comes from younger working people. Same difference.

The Government can just declare those do not need to be paid.

Both Stocks & Social Security don’t need to be paid.


97 posted on 02/04/2019 12:07:07 AM PST by TheNext (Participation Award Winner = CoC)
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To: rintintin

One of my prudent business strategies is to only hire people who are on somebody else’s medical insurance. You can compete very well in many industries if you only hire young people under the age of 26, married people on their spouses’ insurance, and senior citizens on Medicare.


98 posted on 02/04/2019 12:07:55 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.")
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To: marktwain

I paid in 4 times more SS than personal retirement. My private retirement benefits are double my SS benefits. Dollar for dollar, I receive 8 times more income from private retirement payments than I do from SS.


99 posted on 02/04/2019 12:39:34 AM PST by Louis Foxwell (The denial of the authority of God is the central plank of the Progressive movement.)
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To: shelterguy

But at some point, depending on how long you live, it stops being yours and you start receiving somebody else’s money....


100 posted on 02/04/2019 2:03:36 AM PST by greatvikingone
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