Posted on 10/15/2007 2:18:55 PM PDT by trumandogz
WASHINGTON — The nation's first baby boomer applied for Social Security benefits today, signaling the start of an expected avalanche of applications from the post World War II war generation.
Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, a former teacher from New Jersey, applied for benefits over the Internet at an event attended by Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue. Casey-Kirschling, who now lives in Maryland, was born one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946, making her the first baby boomer — a generation of nearly 80 million born from 1946 to 1964, Astrue said.
Casey-Kirschling will be eligible for benefits after she turns 62 next year.
An estimated 10,000 people a day will become eligible for Social Security benefits over the next two decades, Astrue said.
The Social Security trust fund, if left alone, is projected to go broke in 2041, though Astrue said he hopes Congress will address the issue, perhaps after the 2008 presidential election.
These IOUs are non-market T-bills. All they represent is an obligation of the USG to pay that amount in benefits when they are redeemed. There is a reason why the SSTF is included in the $9 trillion national debt. The SSTF IOUs are not money.
But social security revenues and related should be a stand-alone deal, and not part of the general budget.
Disagree. We need to end this phony bookkeeping scam. I would prefer partial privatization, but if not, we should make SS a line item on the federal budget, much the same as being done with Medicare B. All the SSTF represents is the good faith of the USG to pay. And SS is not sustainable as currently structured. In 1950 there were 16 workers for every retiree, today there are 3.3, and in 2030 there will be 2. And in 2030, because of the baby boomers, there will be 70 million retirees, twice as many today.
I see this same sort of thing in local government, they will raid solvent or “surplus” entities to pay for other areas of government that are short. I’m no accountant but it doesn’t seem like a very smart thing to do.
The problem with SS is that it can't be solvent without raising taxes and reducing benefits. And SS is on automatic pilot with annual increases being tied to a fixed formula. The stated rationale for taking the SS "surplus" and issuing T-bills in the amount of the "sutrplus" for deposit into the SSTF is that this money must be put to use somewhere and that it is cheaper for the USG to "borrow" the money from SS than it is from the public. And the interest on the SSTF is a paper transaction, i.e., more non-market T-bills are issued to cover the interest. 17 cents of every federal dollar expended is to service the debt. And Medicare will be facing enormous problems beginning in 2012 or 2013.
The advantages of the Roth are you can accumulate the money tax free in terms of the growth of the investments and when it comes time to taking it out, it is not taxed as income. So although you may not realize a tax deduction for your contributions, there are other advantages when it comes time to take the money out.
The two sayings that set my nerves on end is something with “Baby Boomers: in it. and another is “it for the children”. That one makes me think of Clinton.
So you believe that too?
Yes, I know that's what TODAYS tax code says. That was wrtten at a time when the government wasn't so hungry.
Remember when SS was tax free? That wasn't so long ago.
thefeds expect the illegal aliens to pick up the burden of keeping the social security going....(sarc)but they do.
What an inheritance. A generation of broken homes. A culture completely debased and profane. An education of relativism, feminism, devoid of the classics of “imperialistic, patriarchal” western literature, weak in math and flush with junk science. A financial morass of debt on top of debt on top of unfunded liability.
Inheritance? HA. I’ll get as much of that as I will social security... I’ll pay and pay and when time comes to stop paying there will be nothing for me to collect except worthless debris and detritus.
Believe? No, it is a matter of law. Yes, laws can be changed, all laws. There are no guarantees. You can BELIEVE that the laws covering ROTH IRAs will be changed. So be it. I will continue to deal with the laws as currently written. Each to his own.
I’ve been saying the same thing for 10 years. The trick for the Feds will be to get our guns away from us before they make that move.
“Inheritance? HA”
And believe me, the spoiled brat generations behind you will complain just as bitterly as you are.
While it’s certainly reasonable to operate in accordance with the regs as they are currently interpreted, it’s also wise to understand history.
There’s an enormous fight brewing over all non-government retirement plans. It’s going to be the private sector folks like me, and probably you, against the public employees, who God forbid, won’t have their plans touched, even though you and I funded them.
First of all, USG employees hired after 1983 must join SS. Others hired before that were given the option twice of joining SS in addition to their civil service plans.
Second, if Congress decides to change the COLA formula for SS as part of the "fix," it will affect all retired USG employees, because their civil service pension increases are tied to the SS COLA.
Third, I am a retired USG employee. I paid into my pension plan for 36 years. 7% for my contribution and 7% by the USG.
Finally, I don't see this as a private sector versus public sector battle, especially since the overwhelming majority of public employess pay into SS and are covered by Medicare.
This is all happening already. Seehs, even I thought it would take another decade.
“Madam speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to put a Windfall Tax on all stock market profits (including Retirement fund, 401Ks and Mutual Funds!)”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1911844/posts
If you read the thread, you will see that this is a bogus email source. It is not happening already.
Fox reports it will go broke in 2017.
Do you seriously think that Congress will have the political will to screw middle- and lower-income Americans by additionally taxing Roth IRAs? Roth IRAs are low-income tax shelters. That doesn't generally sit well with the majority of Americans, who are low or middle income.
Why didn’t the age of eligibility for early retirement change when the age at 65 years changed to 65+ 2 months for every yaer born after 1939? It seems silly that early retirement is still set at a flat 62 years.
That's a great point!
That's why we have no choice but to give amnesty to the illegal aliens and get them paying into the system--there's not enough of me and those like me to support the SS system for the Baby Boom retirement....
That's why all of this talk about illegals is nonsense, we have no choice.
As an Xer--with the exception of 1, I was not born into that world. As far as disease goes, I was told I was going to get AIDs, Hep-C, Herpes or Tuberculosis 'cuz of Reagan.
As far as 3, 4, and 5 go, I didn't live in that world; at all. Not even close....
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