Posted on 11/29/2010 4:22:27 AM PST by rabscuttle385
Republican presidential candidate John McCain cashes his monthly Social Security checks despite calling the federal program "a disgrace," the Associated Press reports.
"I'm receiving benefits," McCain told campaign reporters, but added, "the system is broken."
In 2007, he received benefits of $23,157 from Social Security, approximately $1,930 a month. The maximum monthly benefit under Social Security is $2,185. Social Security benefits are determined by age at retirement.
McCain, who is 71, has received benefits since he was 65.
Last week, McCain told observers at a town-hall meeting in Portsmouth, Ohio, "Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers ... and that's a disgrace."
(Excerpt) Read more at bizjournals.com ...
I thought that if you were working and drawing Social Security then your monthly benefit was reduced by a certain amount for every dollar of outside income. So shouldn’t his Senate salary be enough to take his Social Security income down to zero?
That’s what I thought. I think the rules were changed recently.
1. Let rich people like McCain, DECLINE their SS payments and award some kind of MEDAL to these people so they have SOMETHING to show for their sacrifice.
2. Pay people their SS that they paid in PLUS the interest and then STOP!
What a freeking hypocrite. And anyone who chooses and is able to continue to work after 65, especially collecting the kind of salary he does, should forfeit SS UNTIL THEY RETIRE. How many other congresscritters are over 65 and collecting?
Want to bet that they all are?
Seems a lot. Is that typical? I thought it was somewhere around $1k/mo.
And don’t they cut it when you work?
Our church janitor had to cut back his hours to maintain his eligibility for social security. It is outrageous that McCain can earn his $170,000 plus senator salary and still be eligible for SS payments.
for $9.95 per month, I’ll skip this article
Pick something else not this ...Even Reagan (while President) was collecting Social Security...He did to prove a point.Reagan paid into the system and by law was entitled to collect what he contributed to..
Once a person reaches full retirement age (also known as normal retirement age), he or she may receive full Social Security benefits even though the person is still working. However, up to 85 percent of the Social Security benefits are subject to federal income tax.
I believe if you decide to begin collecting SS at 62 then you are only allowed to make a certain amount from SS. Once you are 65 they pay the full benefits.
McCain is saying it is broken, but he helped break it.
He would not be receiving SS unless he applied for it.
How did he earn his SS points ?
For a system that is broken he doesn’t mind taking advantage of it.
There is no reduction of SS payments after 65. If you file early, SS is reduced by about $10/month.
Your benefit is not reduced if you have other sources of income; the benefit payment becomes subject to federal and state income tax.
Well, he did serve his country honorably in the military, was taken prisoner in an active combat zone, and held for years and tortured.
But sure, we should forbid him from taking what he is legally intitled to, from a system he paid into for years, simply because he understands that it is broken.
What's next, are we all going to endorse the moonbats attacking our new representatives for taking their government health insurance while attacking Obamacare?
When did this site accept DU-style tactics?
The fact that eligible people draw SS is not why the system is broken. It was never meant to be a welfare system and yet was turned into one with SSI and other welfare like draws are breaking it. When you consider that working people pay in with employer match something like 12% there should be a huge pot of money there. Where did it go? Ask the people who are getting ssi for their autistic kids, or the “disabled” person who is such due to depression yet they can play golf.
No matter how much money I make from investments and other sources I fully intend to draw my full benefit - I paid into it.
Social Security is NOT welfare and the system needs to stop being used as such.
It is not necessarily at age 65 that someone is entitled to full Social Security benefits. It is at full retirement age, which is gradually increasing from age 65 to age 67. For example, my full retirement age is age 66 and 6 months.
You can work and get Social Security
You can work while you receive Social Security retirement (or survivors) benefits. When you do, it could mean a higher benefit for you in the future. Higher benefits can be important to you later in life and increase the future benefit amounts your family and your survivors could receive.
While you are working, your earnings will reduce your benefit amount only until you reach your full retirement age. After you reach full retirement age we recalculate your benefit amount to leave out the months when we reduced or withheld benefits due to your excess earnings. So not only can a person at full retirement take SS and keep working, it can actually increase their benefits.
On the other hand, like you said, SS can be taxed if you make too much.
Also, you would still be paying into SS, and also paying income taxes. SO unlike the bizarro world being painted by most posters here in this thread, a person collecting SS and still working actually HELPS both the SS system and our country, by being productive, by paying taxes, and by funding the SS system.
If such a person quits, we don't get income taxes, we don't get tax on the SS benefits, and they stop paying SS taxes on their earnings.
Mine is 66 and 10 months. I think that the top age ought to be raised again for younger recipients to 70 for full "benefits".
Actually, I think the program ought to be abolished and everybody that's paid in should be refunded their money including the money that their employer paid in on their behalf. With interest. But I'll be waking up soon so that dream will have been abolished from my memory. :)
He has donated all Senate salary increases since 1991 to charity. What he keeps is around $100,000. All royalties from his books, which total millions of dollars, are donated.
He is well off, much moreso when you include Cindy's income, but he is no slouch in the donation department.
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