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Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, If you want to frighten Baby Boomers, just show them the list of statistics in this article. The United States is headed for a retirement crisis of unprecedented magnitude, and we are woefully unprepared for it. At this point, more than 10,000 Baby Boomers are reaching the age of 65 every single day, and this will continue to happen for almost the next 20 years. The number of senior citizens in America is projected to more than double during the first half of this century, and some absolutely enormous financial promises...

Dear Carrie, I'm turning 65 next year and plan to work for a couple more years. Should I apply for Medicare even though I have coverage through my employer? --A ReaderDear Reader, This is an important question that affects a growing number of workers. In fact, data from the University of Michigan's Health and Retirement Study (2006 to 2010) sponsored by the National Institute on Aging shows some eye-popping trends. According to the study, 79.5 percent of respondents expect to work past age 65, with 65.2 percent expecting to retire by age 80 -- and 22.4 percent planning never to...

The City of Detroit tried to file for bankruptcy last week. A state judge initially blocked the filing, but a federal judge ruled Wednesday this week that the bankruptcy case can move forward. More legal maneuvering is ahead and Detroit may well succeed in the end. After all, Detroit owes somewhere in the neighborhood of $18 to $20 billion to over 100,000 creditors. One group of creditors particularly wary of a municipal bankruptcy is Detroit’s public sector labor unions. They fear a bankruptcy judge might allow the city to cancel or reduce their pension or retiree health benefits. The unions...

The Social Security Administration announced Friday that it would begin accepting benefit claims related to same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court in June found the heart of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to be unconstitutional. It ruled that the federal government cannot treat same-sex marriages approved by some states any differently than heterosexual marriages. The ruling affects more than 1,000 federal regulations affecting everything from tax breaks to entitlement benefits. Prior to the ruling, an individual in a same-sex marriage was unable to claim survivor benefits from Social Security when a spouse died and a couple was unable to claim...

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has paid at least 1,546 dead people $31 million, with some of the deceased receiving benefits for 20 years. According to a June 21 audit by the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration, 2,475 beneficiaries had a recorded date of death in Social Security’s own database. The IG determined that “at least” 1,546 of these individuals were in fact dead and still receiving benefits, totaling $30,956,695 through May 2012. Among those 1,546 deceased, some were receiving benefits for up to 20 years. …

**SNIP** His age and his tenure in Congress — almost 17 years — are short of the mark for a standard retirement annuity from the Federal Employees Retirement System, or FERS. Members of Congress can collect a pension from FERS starting at age 50 if they have completed 20 years of service, or at any age after 25 years of service, according to the Congressional Research Service. But Jackson appears eligible for another FERS program that pays out "disability retirement" payments. Under program rules, potential payments in the first year would total $8,700 a month — or $104,400 a year....

I received a phone call from American Express a few minutes ago telling me that Social Security had notified them of my wife's recent, three weeks ago, passing, and that they were cancelling her card and what payment arrangements did I wish to make. I hintend to deal with her cards and our accounts but for the life of me I can't comprehend what Social Security is doing passing bnews of her death to private institutions. Where in the law does SSS get this authority. Tea Party Patriot that my wife was, she would be outraged at this example of...

You’d think when the Huffington Post’s top writer on finance writes about the tax code, he’d understand at least how the tax code works. But in an age when “finance” editors, like the HuffPo’s Mark Gongloff, are demonstrably anti-business, pro-Occupy and work as shills for progressive ideas, facts take a back seat to ideology, outrage and agendas. The latest outrage Gongloff has taken issue with is how little of the U.S. tax revenue, on a percentage basis, is generated by corporate taxes, as opposed to the good old days of the 1950s. He even has a chart to prove it...

The heat comes early each spring in Slidell, La. If it weren’t for that, the handless corpse of Charles Fisher might have gone on rotting in a 160-quart ice chest for some while, and the Social Security Administration might still have been unaware that Debra Fisher and Heidi Todd were collecting his benefits. On a warm March day last year, repairmen were sent to fix an air conditioner at a brick apartment complex on Military Road. They knocked on the door of the apartment of Charles Fisher, a man in his early 80s, who shared his home with his 58-year-old...

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Chauncey Clinton, 65, of Ross Township was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on charges he cashed his late mother’s social security checks for nearly four decades. Clara Clinton died in May, 1973, and Clinton allegedly began cashing her checks the very next month. U.S. Attorney David Hickton told KDKA-TV News Tuesday that the fraud began to unravel after a SSA program that congratulates people for reaching the century mark turned up possible fraud.

One-fourth of Social Security disability benefits were improperly awarded, according to a Senate report published last September. Outright fraud accounts for a lot of that. National Review Online thought you might like to put a face to the phenomenon, so here’s our Top Ten list of the most outrageous disability cheaters of the past year: No. 10: The Marijuana Entrepreneur In 2011, federal agents raided more than two dozen medical-marijuana businesses in Montana. At the Missoula home and warehouse of Scott Lee Hubeny, 48, they found 243 marijuana plants, several pounds of marijuana, and processing equipment. It was a profitable...

The annual Trustees Report for Social Security has just been issued, and the news is that there is no news. Social Security is on its way over a fiscal cliff – what we hear every year when the report is issued. According to this year’s report, Social Security will be insolvent in 2033 – 20 years from now - when those now 47 years old will be eligible for their full promised benefits. But nothing gets done because the heroes representing us in Washington won’t act on anything politically tough until emergency sirens force them. Social Security is a tax...

The 2013 Social Security Trustees' report, released last week, is proof positive that you really can make numbers say whatever you want. By highlighting one set of "asset reserves" that showed some growth, the report gives ammunition to those who would rather not deal with the fact that the program is on a path to disaster. The Trustees' report begins by noting that: "Asset reserves held in special issue U.S. Treasury securities grew from $2,678 billion at the beginning of the year to $2,732 billion at the end of the year." Translation: the program is "not in a crisis." But...

Americans might generally think that if someone forges a document and uses a Social Security number that does not belong to them, they should go to jail. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., believes if you are an illegal alien and you do these things, you should become a U.S. citizen. He made his case for this in the Senate Judiciary Committee. When the committee was considering amendments to its immigration "reform" bill on May 20, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, pointed to a report published by The Associated Press in March. This report told the story of Candida L. Gutierrez, a Houston...

The Social Security program faces $9.6 trillion in unfunded liabilities over the next 75 years, which is up $1 trillion from last year’s projection of $8.6 trillion, according to the latest report from Social Security’s board of trustees. The unfunded liability is the amount that has been promised in benefits to people now alive that will not be funded by the tax revenue the system is expected to take in to pay for those benefits. (The Social Security trustees calculate the unfunded liability for a period of 75 years into the future, from 2012 to 2087). …

The number of Americans receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) more-than doubled over the past two decades, from 5.2 million to 11.7 million by the end of 2011. The number of residents receiving disability insurance from the Social Security Administration (SSA) varies from state to state. In West Virginia, close to one in every 10 people aged 18 to 64 was receiving SSDI benefits from the federal government, more than three times the rate in states like Utah and Alaska.Click here to see the states with the most Americans on disabilityThe proportion of eligible workers applying for disability benefits also...

President Obama’s most recent budget request would reduce borrowing by $1.1 trillion over the next decade compared with current law -- almost entirely through higher taxes on the rich, large estates and smokers, congressional budget analysts said Friday. In addition to raising nearly $1 trillion in new taxes, the president’s blueprint would also cut spending modestly, according to the analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. However, those savings include money the government never intended to spend anyway, such as a contingency fund for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and nearly $300 billion in unneeded disaster relief. Obama also...

In the aftermath of 9/11, many young, strong Americans enlisted, willingly agreeing to sacrifice their lives if necessary to protect our countryÂ’s interests. TodayÂ’s wealthiest Americans have the same opportunity to put their countryÂ’s interests before their own. Politicians should not shy away from asking them to put forth not their lives but what are, for them, their modest Social Security checks. The philosophy of the investment management firm I founded 15 years ago focuses first on a companyÂ’s balance sheet and second on its income statement. This approach has served our clients well. The current debate over entitlement reform...

The latest Social Security Administration data document that Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) rolls reached a record high of 8.85 million in March 2013, an increase of 1.6 million or 21 percent since the start of the Great Recession in 2007. This recession-induced growth exacerbates the long time trend in SSDI program growth that has resulted in its real expenditures increasing sevenfold, from $18 billion (2010 dollars) in 1970 to $128 billion in 2010, a trend the CBO reports will result in program insolvency as early as 2016. This long running disability epidemic, which hit its pandemic stage in the...

www.fbi.gov/boston/press-releases/2013/federal-indictment-unsealed-as-rhode-island-state-police-and-federal-agents-arrest-seven-search-ten-businesses-and-residences-and-seize-cash-vehicles-and-business-records-in-alleged-cigarette-trafficking-conspiracy Federal Indictment Unsealed as Rhode Island State Police and Federal Agents Arrest Seven; Search Ten Businesses and Residences; and Seize Cash, Vehicles, and Business Records in Alleged Cigarette Trafficking Conspiracy Investigation and Indictment Alleges Complex Interstate Conspiracy That Allegedly Defrauded Rhode Island of More Than $1 Million in Tax Revenue U.S. Attorney’s Office May 08, 2013 District of Rhode Island PROVIDENCE, RI—A federal grand jury indictment that names seven individuals and alleges a complex interstate contraband cigarette trafficking conspiracy responsible for the sale of more than $1.2 million dollars of contraband cigarettes in Rhode Island and the loss of...