There are structural reforms of Social Security that need to be made. Currently, payroll taxes are used to fund more current government spending, and there should be personal accounts where the money is actually set aside. After 2008, many people have lost faith in the stock market, but people should have the choice of investing their personal accounts in bonds or stocks.
I bet Obama's "reform" of Social Security will be to means-test SS benefits for the "rich" and to lift or eliminate the cap on income that is subject to the payroll tax. Democrats have long favored both ideas, which will make SS almost entirely a welfare program.
By my math that's $2 trillion. But I do have to admit, Obama has already performed his first miracle: I thought it would be impossible for anyone to make Bush look fiscally responsible in comparison - I was wrong.
First thing a RAT can think of is cut SS. Same with Klinton, when he finds that there aren’t enough rich folks to go around, he’ll blame Bush.
This doesn’t mean he’s going to take away hubby’s SS, does it?
He worked 50 years for it and we depend on it.
Bush, to his credit, tried to address Social Security and was shot down by the left. If I remember correctly, the AARP started running ads almost immediately against Bush.
So where will these hypocrites be when Zero starts messing with S.S.? Democrats are vile hypocrites and little more needs to be said than that.
I’m not an Obama supporter, but this an area we agree on. If the country wants to have a national pension, we should fund it out of the budget and means test it. Also, the social security tax is regressive as it is only collected on the $102k of income. Combined with an age eligibility scale based on life expectancy, this would make for a manageable program that would meet its objectives for the rest of time.
Here's Obama talking about cutting Social Security.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Let’s see, Bush mentioned doing something about SS and Medicare and got flamed. The Chosen One mentions it and it is a good idea to the MSM’s.
Exactly...his reforms will take SS benefits away from the “rich”...that’s how he’ll overhaul SS. Medicare, that’ll be more thorny to contain, IMHO.
To see BO say he may let the Bush tax cuts expire tells me he is clueless. He obviously has no real plan to grow the economy. It’s only a spending spree.
Instead of saying the economy is bad......it should read we are experiencing a much needed correction. Let the Free Market correct itself.
Remember 2003? The stock market was at 7500. In late 2007, it was at 14,000. You never see this mentioned.
Well, that's not good.
The article is suggesting that we will run a $2 trillion deficit --- however, our total outlays were only $2.9 trillion for 2008. (Summary 2008 Budget Tables from the federal Government Printing Office).
The only way to run that kind of deficit is by running the presses. While I realize the Democrats are truly champions are the "spend" side of the equation, this truly is historic. Our GDP is only running about $14 trillion as of the latest BEA release of GDP numbers.
For the government to run a deficit that would be 1/7th the size of the entire economy would be an interesting proposition.
The short-term focus in such a step would be controlling the amount of annual interest that we pay out. There are at least two ways to do this: (1) borrow the money, and keep interest rates down in the real zero range (which is how Japan managed a very large public debt relative to its GDP), or (2) don't borrow the money, but instead rescind the cap on the issuance of dollars directly by the Treasury Department and simply issue the dollars under the Legal Tender Act.
With (2), at least the government wouldn't have to pay any interest on those new dollars. (If our government were to seriously consider such a plan (not likely!), I would ask them to also please consider letting large bills again circulate --- even in Europe you can now get a 500 euro bill, and with the likely inflationary effect of such an influx of new cash into the system, I think larger bills such as the old $10,000 would be handy.)
Has there ever been a case of a Ponzi scheme that did not self-destruct?
cutting programs that Americans actually like. “
Really LIKE? How about really EARNED.
I have paid into that phony system for 20 years, imagine those who paid for 50 years! This is outright theft from their paycheck!!
IN all his “FDR” glory, he is screwing over FDR’s program!
It will be entertaining to watch Barry deal with SS.
It is an election sacred cow, so he’ll have to be careful.
AARP and ASA have lobbyists who probably had faxes going to all 533 CongressCritters before the print was dry on this news article.
ASA is a Conservative Group for Seniors, please join if you’re not already a member . . . http://www.americanseniors.org/
Who in their right mind trusts this Chicago thug to make a positive difference in this country.
Related.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2160824/posts
Big Slide in 401(k)s Spurs Calls for Change
The way Obama is going to fix social security and medicare is simple, he is going to seize all 401K’s and IRA and create a new social security system for all Americans on top of the old failing one.
Medicare will be eliminated roughly the same way he’ll seize the assets of all the HMOs and private medical insurance companies combine them into one super government health care system.
Socialism at it’s worst, the government seizes all competition to it’s programs for the good of the people.
Translation for those who may not see it:
Retiree pensions:
401ks and IRAs will be raided to supplement the Social Security System. (and you thought you were saving for yourself, didn’t you?)
Health: We will get nationalized health care.
(this will guarantee more people will die with inferior care given them).
Problems: Solved
The simple solution to avoid the demographic problem is to float the retirement age to keep things solvent year to year. That can be done with or without a true trust fund (ideally individual funds) to help even out anticipated demographic bulges. Same can be done for Medicare age qualifications.
That requires political leadership, so it won’t happen.
I’d prefer a simple phase out of the whole system (both medicare and SS). Existing obligations could be funded by selling off federal assets (like most of the federal land in the western US) to private hands.
That won’t happen either.
Here’s what will inevitably happen:
INFLATION
Plan and invest accordingly. This will steal the value of your dollar-denominated assets, and reduce the value of the payouts you are expecting.
Look, I can't stand Obama, or liberals, but if they can attack this problem with real solutions, I'll support it.