PERFECT STORM: Fed Chairman Bernanke speaking about the two-headed monster looming on the horizon: capping future medical and retirement costs.
Posted on 01/20/2007 9:44:47 AM PST by Liz
PERFECT STORM: Fed Chairman Bernanke speaking about the two-headed monster looming on the horizon: capping future medical and retirement costs.
Fed boss Ben Bernanke told Congress yesterday that the nation is facing a potential economic disaster as the aging Baby Boom generation is set to drain the nation's retirement and health care funds. The Federal Reserve chairman's remarks to the Senate Budget Committee didn't include any of the typical chitchat about the short-term outlook for inflation or his thoughts about monetary policy. Those are due in mid-February, when Bernanke is scheduled to testify before both houses of Congress on the economic picture.
Instead, Bernanke used this appearance on the Hill to throw down the gauntlet, challenging Congress to come up with ways to solve some major challenges that could create a "fiscal crisis" over the longer haul. Specifically, Bernanke warned that runaway medical care costs and retirement costs for the country's aging population are akin to a ticking time bomb. We may be celebrating the recent trend toward narrower budget deficits, but Bernanke cautioned that that will be short-lived as more and more Baby Boomers start claiming both Social Security and Medicare benefits. "We are experiencing what seems likely to be the calm before the storm," Bernanke declared.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Meant to be said with a BIG (/SARC) added.
I've heard elsewhere that the FICA-MCARE Ponzi scheme is the reason the govt won't restrict illegal immigration. It's also the reason they want to disarm us, as once the truth is out in full force as to what has been going on with the "trust fund", folks will be out for blood.
That's because politicians are more concerned about the next election rather than the next generation.
Folks have no one to blame but themselves for allowing these clowns to lead them around by the nose ring for so long.
Soon Americans will enjoy the Mexican style retirement system after their Social Security is looted by Mexican illegal aliens.
I can see participants in the Mexican style retirement system when I visit Tijuana: Mexican Retirees have an assigned street corner and stand there holding a pan or cap waiting for generous Mexicans (rare) to drop some money inside or sell chiklet gum or cheap trinkets.
American retirees will eventually be enjoying this Third World lifestyle retirement plan curtesy of George Bush if his Social Security Totalization agreement for illegal aliens goes through.
Good luck with that.
One of my sisters is in this group - she's got a boyfriend and they're planning on retiring and buying a house in MEXICO - soon. I think she has rocks for brains. But .. evidently, there is a large community of Americans deep within the country, on the eastern coast, and that's where they plan to buy a house.
I would never do this. If I ever move, it would be closer to my grandchildren, not farther away.
bump
The $2 Trillion "transition costs" are to cover administrative overhead.
:^)
buying a house in MEXICO - soon. I think she has rocks for brains.
A couple in my apt. bldg. have a condo in Baja, they moved
back up to San Diego last yr. and said the Revolution is
coming and we don't want to be there for it.
They are so correct.
Gerardo Luviano is looking for somebody to rent his Social Security number. Mr. Luviano, 39, obtained legal residence in the United States almost 20 years ago. But these days, back in Mexico, teaching beekeeping at the local high school in this hot, dusty town in the southwestern part of the country, Mr. Luviano is not using his Social Security number. So he is looking for an illegal immigrant in the United States to use it for him - providing a little cash along the way. "I've almost managed to contact somebody to lend my number to," Mr. Luviano said. "My brother in California has a friend who has crops and has people that need one."
Mr. Luviano's pending transaction is merely a blip in a shadowy yet vibrant underground market. Virtually undetected by American authorities, operating below the radar in immigrant communities from coast to coast, a secondary trade in identities has emerged straddling both sides of the Mexico-United States border. The number of people participating in the illegal deals is impossible to determine accurately. But it is clearly significant, flourishing despite efforts to combat identity fraud.
"There are people who live in Mexico who take $4,000 or $5,000 in unemployment in the off season," said Jorge Eguiluz, a labor contractor working in the fields around Stockton, Calif. "They just lend the number during the season." The deals also generate cash in other ways.
Most identity lending happens within an extended family, or among immigrants from the same hometown. But it is still a hard-nosed transaction. Illegal immigrant workers usually earn so little they are owed an income tax refund at the end of the year. The illegal immigrant "working the number" will usually pay the real owner by sharing the tax refund.
Since legal American residents can lose their green cards if they stay outside the country too long, for those who have returned to Mexico it is useful to have somebody working under their identity north of the border. "There are people who live in Mexico who take $4,000 or $5,000 in unemployment in the off season," said Jorge Eguiluz, a labor contractor working in the fields around Stockton, Calif. "They just lend the number during the season."
The deals also generate cash in other ways. Most identity lending happens within an extended family, or among immigrants from the same hometown. But it is still a hard-nosed transaction. Illegal immigrant workers usually earn so little they are owed an income tax refund at the end of the year. The illegal immigrant "working the number" will usually pay the real owner by sharing the tax refund. "Sometimes the one who is working doesn't mind giving all the refund, he just wants to work," said Fernando Rosales, who runs a shop preparing income taxes in the immigrant-rich enclave of Huntington Park, Calif. "But others don't, and sometimes they fight over it. We see that all the time. It's the talk of the place during income tax time."
The income tax "refund" is almost certainly generated by Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) fraud, which as a "legal resident" the number renter would qualify to receive, especially if they have have or claim children. The EITC is a "refundable tax credit, which means the IRS will pay it out even if no taxes have been withheld or paid in. So the IRS gives filers who claim the EITC "refunds," even if they have had no taxes withheld. These number renters can claim up to $4,400 for the 2005 tax year in EITC "refunds," most of the number renters probably claim this maximum refund.
The Additional Child Tax Credit is another "refundable" credit which is no doubt routinely claimed by these renters.For 2005, if the number renter claimed $14,400 in wage income, and three children, between the EITC and the Additional Child Tax Credit the renter would, without having any taxes withheld from wages, receive a tax "refund" of $4,898, plus have $892 credited to Social Security; in addition to the potential of thousands of dollars in California unemployment compensation.
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Another widely-used SSN scheme: the illegals name their anchor baby the same name as the parent. They obtain a valid SSN for the anchor baby; the parent uses it, no one checks beyond name-matching, if that.
Lou Dobbs mentioned that the illegals are stealing small childrens' SSN because a child doesn't use a number very often so it is near impossible to detect a stolen number.
FR once ran an article which said that one youngster had over 400 people using her number (probably her relatives who sneaked across the border).
Dobbs also mentioned that business owners give illegals SSN of a previous employee (it is not a felony to give away SSNs but it is a felony to use them).
Now they don't have to use rented or fake SS# because they've just been granted the right to collect SS if they have worked a short time (44 monthes I think), whereas we American citizens have to work far longer before collecting.
Illegals got more scams to ripoff US taxpayers than your average lawmaker. You continually read about illegals "striving for a better life" who are supposedly earning low wages flipping hamburgers and picking lettuce sending billions back to Mexico and other Central and So American countries. They also pay upwards of $30,000 to get smuggled into the US, and thousands upon thousands of dollars for falsified documents.
Karl Rove went bearing gifts of amnesty to the National Council of La Raza. Rove said immigration law was not enforced so as "not to inconvenience those who are seeking a better life."
They're turning our Nation into a lawless Third World banana republic. What's next? Camouflage-clad federales patrolling our streets with shoulder holsters and ammo clips?
Actually, in Tijuana I've seen pickup trucks full of Federales or soldiers driving around the streets with rifles (to intimidate the drug cartels?). In time, we will see trucks full of soldiers patrolling Los Angeles with machine guns to intimidate the gangs.
Convergence: USA and Mexico merge into a third world dump run by drug cartels and gangs that looks like something out of Blade Runner and Idiocracy.
And the whole scenario is coming to a head fast, I truly fear for my children, never mind my grandchildren.
Well .. I'm really concerned for her. She met this guy on the internet .. and although she has talked a lot about him to my other sister, she has not talked to me at all .. but that's nothing new .. she hasn't talked to me for years .. because I'm a republican. No one in the family has met him.
As a liberal, she's going to be in for a rude awakening when she arrives in Mexico. And .. I find it amazing that she could leave here and move several days away from her grandchildren.
I'm not surprised about the "revolution" coming .. I'm just hoping it doesn't include LA and San Diego.
*I'm just hoping it doesn't include LA and San Diego.*
That is their idea. Check out the site, Aztlan.
When I was part of the counter group when over 50,000 Mexicans marched and had their rally here in S.D. They had their Mexican flags, Che T-shirts, signs "gringo go home, this is ours" and worse. Where they had their rally
were tables full of Marxist literature.
Bad enough your sister moving to Baja, but someone from the internet. I hope she has life insurance to leave the family.
"I've heard elsewhere that the FICA-MCARE Ponzi scheme is the reason the govt won't restrict illegal immigration. "
The govt in charge of that would report to George Bush.
"It's also the reason they want to disarm us..."
President Bush wants to disarm us?
" as once the truth is out in full force as to what has been going on with the "trust fund", folks will be out for blood."
Either Bush is Dracula or your sources are nuts.
Methinks it will include the entire west coast with a no man's land on the western side of the Rockies. Might coincide with the 'Big One' or some cataclysmic natural event of epic proportion.
We should have gone to a system like Chile, where they retire with an income of around $5k U.S./month. I think it was first proposed during the Reagan administration , but the democrats blocked it naturally. I will never forgive the democrats for that. Tip O'Neil - Patooy!
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