Posted on 11/28/2005 8:18:17 PM PST by LouAvul
.....snip.....
When President Bush proposed a Social Security overhaul this year as the top domestic priority of his second term, he promised the changes wouldn't apply to anyone 55 or older. But Bush's plan has gone nowhere, and actuaries say demographics and simple arithmetic will make it difficult to repeat that commitment in the future.
Americans who are 50-something - a point in life when many are registering peak earnings, seeing their children move into the workplace and beginning to make detailed plans for their retirement - could be in for some unwelcome surprises down the road.
"Keeping that promise this year made our job much more difficult," says Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. "I don't see how you're going to be able to have that rule of thumb three years from now."
Americans moving toward retirement wouldn't lose benefits entirely. With no changes, payroll taxes would cover nearly 75% of current benefits when the trust fund is exhausted. But policymakers who want to keep the system solvent and protect low-income seniors could take steps that would affect those nearing retirement or already there: Trimming benefits, especially for the more affluent. Reducing cost-of-living adjustments. Subjecting more Social Security income to taxation.
Changes such as those become more likely for near-retirees as each year passes.
For one thing, the task of fixing Social Security gets harder as it moves closer to the time when it runs a deficit (starting in 2017, according to the Social Security Administration) or exhausts its trust fund entirely (in 2041).
For another, the number of people who are 55 and older is beginning to swell with members of the baby boom generation - the bulge in the population that helped create Social Security's predicament in the first place.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Then I'll rub it in.
You seem to be under the false impression that the government is not going to sieze you savings to fund this ponzi scheme.
If you have read present day laws and regulations of the U.S. federal government, you would know that all it takes is a single phonecall from a federal bureaucrat to the bank(s) you use for your savings to become the government's savings. And you only recourse to this theft is the firearms you have in your possession.
It's probably safer to bury cash in the backyard than to put it in the bank.
I could begin collecting Social Security in a couple of years. My question is this:
If I renounce my "right" to ever collect anything from Social Security right now, will I be allowed to live till I die from natural causes?
This is already happening in Calif. There are numerous immigrants collecting SS benefits without paying a dime into the system. My Mom and I have discuss this at length as to how it is possible for them to collect on SS without having ever worked in this country. We can't figure how they are eligible.
I have been hearing that the SS system was going to crash for years and years. Because of this, my hubby and I have planned our retirement as if we won't be getting a dime out of the system. If SS happen to be solvent for us to collect on it then it will be gravy money for us. That is the only reasonable way to plan for a retirement these days.
It doesn't work that way. Government wants to tax us into homeless and starvation and give all the money to those who are destroying the U.S.
If anyone doesn't believe me, just ask yourself why the IRS income tax is so complex. The answer is simple, it is complex so it can be used to hurt (non-limo-liberal) U.S. citizens, I.E. us.
I am mid 40s and am tired of paying into this scheme. I would be willing to let them keep everything they have taken towards SS so far without giving me a dime if they would just leave me alone and let me keep my money from now on. Too bad I won't get that option.
Ding, ding, ding, we have a winnah!
Same here. And what really frosts me is that while SS is going down the tubes, gubbermint workers are guaranteed generous retirement benefits. In Cali and other states, many public workers can now retire at 50 or 55 with large pensions and lifetime medical coverage.
Or buy more firearms!
Having your investments/savings in firearms and ammo maybe a sane idea along as you do it and store your firearms in a very progun/pro 2nd Amendment State/Town.
Franklin, TN.
We're safe! lol
They should call social security and any pension program "The Big Lie."
I have heard this professor speak on housing and retirement. Essentially, he says exactly what you say: don't trust the government for anything in the future (except to raise your taxes). He argues for privatized schools, private investment plans and cancelling social security (gradually). Liberals in the audience were screaming at him! He has this Dick Cheney smirk and said: "And why do think its appropriate to have social security and medicare when you know that the next generation will have none? Don't you think that scaling back on your benefits to help your children would be the right thing to do?" Hillarious ... and he was digging it!
http://fisher.osu.edu/~sanders_12/
Another professor on the program was horrified. Of course. A Republican college professor! We should have him bronzed!
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