Posted on 03/29/2010 4:15:30 PM PDT by Kaslin
Entitlements: Social Security's chief actuary reports that the social safety net will run a deficit for 2010, nine years earlier than predicted. Put down that big gavel, Madam Speaker, we're about to hit the iceberg.
No sooner had House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, carrying the gavel used when Medicare was enacted, taken a victory lap around the Capitol Building after passage of the health care bill than did the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration report that his part of the social safety net had a big hole in it and would run a deficit for all of 2010.
Stephen C. Goss said that payments rose "unexpectedly" during the economic downturn as jobs disappeared and people feeling no hope and seeing little change opted to apply for benefits sooner than planned. Revenues also shrank due to fewer paychecks to tax.
Failure of the stimulus to keep unemployment under 8%, as the administration promised, has taken its toll on the entitlement. According to Goss, the administration expected a quicker, stronger recovery from the financial crisis. Officials foresaw an average unemployment rate of 8.2% in 2009 and 8.8% this year, though unemployment is hovering near 10%.
The 2010 shortfall is expected to be $29 billion, but it's still early. It could get bigger as the economy collapses under the weight of increased debt and deficits spurred on by the new taxes and economic disincentives of newly passed ObamaCare. Then, looming ahead, is the angel of economic death known as cap-and-trade.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Get ready for means testing!
I have been forced to pay into this scam for almost 40 years now and will probably never collect a cent of it in return.
That's why my plan for retirement was completed totally independent of any calculation on Social Security.
It really is all unsustainable. At some point something will have to give.
Yeah, mine too. Which is why we’ll both get screwed.
Yep, what I’ve been saying. And they could print more money, but they’re shying away from that this time. Why? Because there’s not enough manufacturing to tax for it, this time. The money wouldn’t only be inflated. It would be truly worthless. And government employees won’t benefit from worthless money any more than the rest of us.
And the communist takeover that so many of us are harping about? It can’t happen without heavy manufacturing. What are they going to take over—our factories in China?
Means testing & higher retirement age coming soon. The producer class will lose its benefits. The consumer class will have cradle to grave income courtesy of Uncle Sam’s redistribution of wealth. After all, it is “fair”.
How about telling the truth that DC spent the money and now can not repay it due to lack of new money coming in.
I think the 401k that people save in to supplement their SS income will be the reason they don’t receive any SS. I have a small 401k, only enough to take advantage of the company match. All other savings has been cash. Which comes in handy now that I have been layed off for 15 months.
Of course, those who have not earned any benefits will still get everything they want as entitlements.
My husband and I paid into the program for a combined 60 years and we just started collecting. We don’t have much of a choice about depending on social security. What were these idiots thinking when they declined to address the problem of social security when Bush was President? This absolutely makes me sick.
Agreed. I’m a Baby Boomer, and I say, “Cut ‘em off!” Simply shut down Social Security and all of that. You’ll have that chance after the big default. Just make sure that you abolish the anti-competition zoning laws against small manufacturing operations, so that rebuilding will be possible.
Kick the can down the road aways. Since it would be politically unpopular to fix, they try to make someone else fix it.
When all you are about is getting elected, you have no interest in the tough decisions or following a moral code if it costs you votes.
The insanity begins to collapse on itself.
Everything that happens while the dems are in control is “unexpectedly”.
My advice to you is cash in that 401K before the marxists get it, too.
>Im a Baby Boomer, and I say, Cut em off!
Ah, a sane one!
>Simply shut down Social Security and all of that.
Not only that, replace the progressive income tax with an across-the-board individual income tax (the IRS could then be disbanded and/or folded into the FBI). (No corporate tax.) Disband the Dept of Education, Dept of Energy, Dept of Labor, Dept of Transportation (actually DOT could be re-chartered to EXCLUSIVELY enforce the interstate commerce regulation clause; depriving Congress of that rationale). Start going through the [Federal] lawbooks and throw out EVERYTHING that isn’t specifically authorized by the constitution. Make it legal for duels in Federally controlled districts/’properties.’ (This will solve the “term-limit problem”... if the Constituents are determined enough.)
As you can see, I have no hope of ever being elected.
>Youll have that chance after the big default.
We shall see.
Some numbers for you guys...
Life to date I’ve paid in $230,095 and by the time of retirement in 2021 will have paid in more than $365,000...
At 5% earnings compounded I would have a fund worth just under $1,000,000 that could pay me a benefit of $60,000 per year to age 95 (not that I’m going to live that long and which is a lot less than the benefit that would actually be paid) with over $200,000 remaining in the fund at death...
At 8% earnings compounded it is obscene how much cash there would be...
If that’s not theft I don’t know what is...
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