Posted on 05/10/2022 9:57:12 PM PDT by RandFan
Partial transcript:
“So this time we have a worse financial crisis than last time and nobody gets a bailout, nobody gets a government check there is no TARP there is nothing and what does that mean that means the US government instead of sending stimulus checks to Americans who were struggling, who are unemployed the US government is actually going to send Americans a bill because the government is going to be forced to raise taxes on the people who still have jobs because that's the only way it can pay its bills but you know what else they're going to do they're going to cut Social Security, they're going to cut Medicare not for future recipients but for the people who are getting checks right now.
The government is going to have to tell people who are on Social Security and who vote you know what we don't have enough already the Fed is fighting inflation right now and so we don't have any extra money and the cost of paying the national debt has skyrocketed and you know we have to pay a lot of money to Japan and China and Saudi Arabia and we don't have any money left over to make Social Security payments so we're going to have to cut your payments. Now maybe they won't say that maybe we're going to say you know what we're just going to tell a Japanese to pound sand and we're going to tell the Saudis and the Chinese we don't have any money we're defaulting on US treasury’s because the only way we can pay Social Security is not to pay you and the people who get Social Security vote and you guys don't. I mean it's going to be some combination of this but can you imagine what would be happening in the US economy if we were doing that if we were defaulting on treasury’s and cutting Social Security raising taxes on the middle class this is all what has to happen if the markets are correct that Powell is committed to fighting inflation and doing whatever it takes but I know that's a fantasy there's no way Powell is going to do any of that at the first sign of real trouble the Fed is going to pivot, the Fed is going to call off these rate hikes in fact any rate hikes that have been delivered will be reversed.”
I'll believe it when I see it.
I agree that Social Security is a complete ponzi scheme that is going to collapse at some point. It needs to be genuinely reformed to deal with its imbalance or just scrubbed altogether.
Having said that, over $300,000 was paid into FICA in my name throughout my career. Had that money every year been invested into an S&P 500 index fund, it would be worth well over $1M today...and that includes all the ups and downs for the various recessions. At the time of my retirement, had that been converted into a nice, safe 6% annuity, I’d be getting 5000 a month in pension income my government mandated retirement rather than the 2000 a month I’ll get from social security if and when I start collecting it.
And that’s independent of any 401k investments by the way. Just looking at how the FICA could’ve/should’ve been handled.
So you’ll excuse me, Mr. Thiel, if I tell you to shove that proposal to cut social security up your @**.
If you want to fix social security, you need to take one massively hard bite on the bullet. Those over 50, you keep as is. Those under 40, you do the math and calculate what their contributions with employer match would’ve been had they been invested and you set up TSP-like account for each person. For those between 40 and 50, you give them a choice. No more off budget, no more “trust fund” money laundering, no more “special issue bond” shell game. Just eat it once and be done with it.
They’d need to legislate some serious protections on that: it could only be withdrawn as an annuity with monthly payments, cannot borrow against it (like you can against your 401k), not subject to art forfeiture, liens, divorce property division, etc., and if you die before the annuity is paid in full, your surviving spouse it children don’t get a cash payout, but rather have the funds go into their accounts to be used in their annuities. But that’s doable.
Sadly, it’ll never happen though it would completely heal the system with only one major shock. It would also largely wipe out the unfunded debt problem this government (and thus we) have. Oh well...
Sorry all, I meant Mr Schiff, not Mr. Thiel.
The very first thing I ask ANY doctor (or their clerks) is, “Do you take Medicare Assignment.” If they don’t I find another doctor. What’s ‘Assignment?’ It’s the price they together agree on what Medicare will pay for for any given coded procedure. I also ask the same question about my supplemental insurance - do they take assignment or have rate agreements with that part of my insurance. You’d be surprised how much those over-inflated bills are knocked down.
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Just like Obama, you simply change how something is calculated, and produce reports all saying nothing’s changed, we’re doing great, and the dutiful State Press reports nothing has changed, or we’re doing better.
The biggest problem is they don’t care what the public thinks. There is zero accountability.
Pelosi, Schumer, McConnell, Graham - they’re entrenched.
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Yup, one of my pet peeves is when they just use a raw number and don’t state or consider the percentage to the whole.
“Company X loses 1 billion”. “Oh my god, 1 billion!” But if that is 5% of cash they have on hand, its a yawner.
What is it that are going to give them now, about 40 billion? So the can money launder thru Ukraine?
If you are a self-employed high earner, your FIXA tax can dwarf your federal income tax. I should have self identified as a Seventh Day Adventist decades ago and just invested all the FICA paid.
Jesus, talk about shooting the messenger. Sheesh
The Dems have been telling us for decades that Social Security is a safe and good investment of your money. Now the truth comes out.
Haven’t they been warning about this since the 70s?
The US govt does not have our money in a vault somewhere. It only prints it. Soon it will 100% only dole out bytes to all, retirees or not, where it wants to, by algorithm. And you can only spend it where it allows you to. This will be its last resort: slave-based economy.
There is nothing directly in scripture that says the mosque has to go. The temple could be built adjacent to the jewish side of the wailing wall....as a group of Rabinnical students pointed out in 2002 when they laid a symbolic corner stone next to the wailing wall. It caused a bit of a ruckus but they made a valid point. There is nothing that stops the 3rd temple being built except a sense of “tradition”, politics and God’s will. The Mosque can stay where it is. Even if the mosque became rubble the Muslims would still claim the area for a rebuild. So no instant temple opprtunity there...the muslims who would contest such a Jewish temple replacement would also have to be removed.
Check it out...there is no biblical commandment that the temple be rebuilt on the Temple mount next to or replacing the mosque of Omar. The Bible just says that the temple will have been rebuilt in Jerusalem. It has always been “white spaced” gospel(the white spaces between the black letters of the Bible)assumption the the temple should be rebuilt over the old Mosque. The black lettering never mentions the final location of the third temple...only in Jerusalem.
There is now no physical reason why the temple can’t be rebuilt and there is no biblical statement as to why it should be built exactly where it had been before ..and they have everything they need! Being built right next to the old Wailing Wall might be as good a spot as any...indeed such an enterprise might be played up as culturally interlocking and significant given the “heroic struggles and the perservering nature of the Hebrew Jewish peoples”!
So when do they cut welfare?
In the name of equity, the govt will not reduce these, they will increase them. Why do you think they need to lower SS?
Now that's the truth.. They're always threatening the old and venerable.. Do what we say or you'll starve in the streets.. It can be hard to resist when they got you by the wallet..
I suppose that's why the rats of D.C. hate it when ever a democrat gets a decent job.. They wise up and become republicans.
Fixed it.
Like millions of others.
For years they told us to plan for retirement. Now, those of us that started planning are watching it all evaporate. And at least 50% of the population is going to be wiped out in the crash.
It is time to execute the SHTF plans. It is time to downsize immediately to living without government assistance, it is time to grasp the fact the money the government took from us paycheck to paycheck is gone. Non-recoverable.
The government has failed. And the United States is on her own.
Get the illegal aliens out of our country. I believe they are giving them land in TX now.
They tried to kill off all of the Medicare/SS recipients with Covid, didn’t work.
I wonder how Americans will react knowing their Social Security cost of living increases is now being sent to Biden’s buddies in Ukraine.
Old article but I doubt one thing has changed.
$45 Billion Wasted in Redundant Federal Programs: GAO
Didn’t Perot campaign with the research paper some college student did on where all the money was being spent and wasted?
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