Posted on 06/10/2007 9:28:36 PM PDT by george76
Picture this: A rotund, theatrical politician from Harlem and a wiry, introverted policy-wonk from Shreveport sitting elbow to elbow on the House floor, shuffling between each other's offices, passing paper between staffs.
Two men from opposite ends of the political spectrum, they are joined in secrecy on a project that just about everyone else in Washington considers doomed to failure. Charlie Rangel and Jim McCrery are on a mission to rescue Social Security from bankruptcy.
Conventional Washington wisdom long ago wrote the death notice on Social Security reform. What Republican would want to touch a project that blew up in George Bush's face just two years ago? What Democrat would risk frightening senior citizens when party leaders are hoping they'll be passing out tickets for Inaugural Day, 2009?
Neither man is willing to disclose details on those options. All they have to do is look across the Capitol at the left-right torpedoes being launched at the bipartisan immigration bill to understand what dangerous waters they are treading in.
One thing that is clear: the Bush White House will not play a big role, if any, in this effort. "McCrery and I know that we don't need the President to revive Social Security reform," Rangel says, pointedly. "The President is locked into private accounts and that ain't gonna fly," says Rangel. "[Reform] is going cost a trillion dollars; it's a political problem we have. You can have all the bipartisan cooperation you want, but if you don't find someone who's going to pay for it, you're not going to do it."
That sounds like a tax increase ...
(Excerpt) Read more at biz.yahoo.com ...
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Let it die.
Please, let’s NOT save Social Security. Let’s kill it quickly, and replace it with personal accounts owned by the individuals contributing. Let’s remove this huge pot of money from the grasps of power-hungry politicos.
I agree. As a younger worker, having so much money confiscated from me for a forced federal ‘retirement program’ makes me furious! I’d be more than willing to lose what I’ve paid in thus far just to make it stop!
What on earth is McCrery doing plotting more big government confiscation with Rangel??
Is every other inner city person on social security disability?
It is not a “retirement program”. It is a confiscatory tax with the sole purpose or re-distributing hard-earned wealth. It is also a generational Ponzi scheme whose pending doom grows exponentially each time we pay it forward. The piper will inevitably be paid, and what a payment that will be!
I suspect I'm a little older than you. I don't need my SS to retire on because I had the foresight to set aside and invest smartly, but I'll be a little pissed when I get ready to retire only to find that all I've paid in all my life won't be there (and it it probably won't be). Most retirees eventually take out more than they put in, but many will lose all they've paid if SS collapses prior to their being able to collect.
And that is exactly why I took my Social Security benefit as soon as I could (age 62). I doubt Social Security is gonna be around much longer. I hope to at least get out what I paid in, plus a little extra to partially make up for what I had to loose by not being able to invest it privately.
Private accounts are the ONLY way to go. Pensions, 401Ks, IRAs, etc. have proved that for years and years.
they need to stop giving it to immigrants who go to their embassies with their work record from their home country.
they need to stop giving benefits to illegal aliens too.
Gud point. Just means I’m double screwed.
Teaming up with a guy like Rangel on this is absurd. What is it with our people?
Congressional Republicans, including many otherwise-solid conservatives, all went to one big fat wood-alcohol-bathtub-gin bender somewhere in DC.
They all went blind as a result. Now they get taken out behind the barn.
I prefer to let it “whither on the vine” myself. :)
I’m just dashing around figures in my head, but if they just put a stop to FICA now (Medicare, as I understand, is doing reasonably well), citizens could likely just take a deep breath and get cashed out at something like 80 cents on the dollar, if they would dole it out tax-free.
Frankly, I benefit the most because I’m still in the workforce for another twenty-odd years, but younger folks benefit more, and there would be no reduction in current benefits. I’ll take a 20% “loss” without tax consequence if they would just take this Ponzi Scheme out and bury it up to its chin. It’s the young who are getting screwed, here.
You are absolutely right on!!
The best thing that could happen to the Social Security is for the Idiots in DC to quit giving it away to all of the druggies, immigrants and illegals, in fact if they would stop giving all the freebees and hand-out to the illegals they wouldn’t want to stay. The idiot politicos have made life here so attractive and easy for them....it’s like bees drawn to honey. They just take the money back across the border and bank it for their relatives, while they live on U.S. freebees and medical.
Why is it when I go to the SS Office, I always see young Hispanics sitting their with their ninas and ninos on there laps......they’re not retired! It makes me sick and madder that a wet hen!!!!
You are absolutely right on!!
The best thing that could happen to the Social Security is for the Idiots in DC to quit giving it away to all of the druggies, immigrants and illegals, in fact if they would stop giving all the freebees and hand-out to the illegals they wouldn’t want to stay. The idiot politicos have made life here so attractive and easy for them....it’s like bees drawn to honey. They just take the money back across the border and bank it for their relatives, while they live on U.S. freebees and medical.
Why is it when I go to the SS Office, I always see young Hispanics sitting their with their ninas and ninos on there laps......they’re not retired! It makes me sick and madder that a wet hen!!!!
Sorry for the double post.
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