Posted on 06/23/2004 11:02:39 PM PDT by neverdem
Edited on 07/12/2004 4:16:48 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Denial, as the saying goes, is not just a river in Egypt. Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report suggesting there will be a slightly lower actuarial deficit and a later insolvency date than previously estimated by the Social Security Administration itself. Opponents of Social Security reform immediately seized on the reported improvement in Social Security finances to argue against fixing the program.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
'Survivors' already got cut back. What is sacred about the age of 65?
I guess nothing, because that 65 is now 66 anyway.
Somebody correct if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that happened already.
The retirement age will be raised allright. But I resent the fact that I can't get out from under this scam.
We're talking about Social Security. When it was set up, it was sold not as a tax supported charity, but as a government run business like the Panama Canal or TVA. It's time for all of us to accept the fact that money was accepted under the terms of a business contract, but that the business is no longer a good idea and has to be shut down.
You can't take money and then change the terms of the contract if you're running a business-- that only works when you're taxing and spending. There are limits with what you can do with tax'n'spending also. If we follow the precedent of 1790 (paying off the war bonds), we'll want to honor commitments made when Social Security money was taken in. Or not-- we could simply reduce benefits to a token level or just eliminate paybacks altogether. Throwing principle and reputation to the wind, we could also declare treasury bonds void and not have to pay back $7,217,554,314,339.98. Russia did it in 1920 and regretted it- it's not nice to have a bad credit rating.
A prediction (you heard it first here). Social Security liabilities will be paid off enough to shore up America's bond rating, and the program will be gutted. Good riddance.
By the time we get to 2040 or so, a typical monthly Social Security check won't even be enough to buy a bag of groceries.
My prediction that the feds would fail to keep Social Security running was just what I remembered with most other federal schemes. The idea would usually be to keep the thing running on paper (like say, the Federal Helium Blimp Commission), and blame all reduction of activities on others.
OTOH, that is a lot like what you said too.
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