Posted on 01/06/2012 6:38:10 PM PST by DJ MacWoW
KEENE, N.H. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum called Friday for immediate cuts to Social Security benefits, risking the wrath of older voters and countless others who balk at changes to the entitlement program.
"We can't wait 10 years," even though "everybody wants to," Santorum told a crowd while campaigning in New Hampshire and looking to set himself apart from his Republican rivals four days before the New Hampshire primary.
Most of his opponents have advocated phasing in a reduction and say immediate cuts would be too big a shock to current and soon-to-be retirees.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
Hi Fives in Axelrod’s office. The wascally Wepublicans want grandma to each dog food!
Clearly aware of the risks, Santorum argued that everyone must sacrifice now because the nation's "house is on fire" with soaring federal debt. He argued that he is being courageous and honest by telling Americans they can't afford to wait to rein in Social Security's growing costs. And he said he anticipated possible attack ads on his position.
Remember, not only did you contribute to Social Security but your employer did too. It totaled 15% of your income before taxes. If you averaged only $30K over your working life, that’s close to $220,500..
If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer’s contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the govt.. pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working you’d have $892,919.98.
If you took out only 3% per year, you’d receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than 30 years (until you’re 95 if you retire at age 65) and that’s with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you’d have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month.
The folks in Washington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madhoff ever had.
Entitlement my ass, I paid cash for my social security insurance!!!! Just because they borrowed the money, doesn’t make my benefits some kind of charity or handout!!
Congressional benefits —— free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days, now that’s welfare, and they have the nerve to call my social security retirement entitlements?
We’re “broke”!
In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile , and Turkey And now Pakistan ......home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!
Our retired seniors living on a ‘fixed income’ receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government pours Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$’s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries and lazy Americans who have never worked a day in their lives!!!!
They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlement even though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives and now when it’s time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow from it in the first place? Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave ‘US’ TAXPAYERS, the same support they give to other countries.
This is called “bait and switch”. People are barely able to get by now, thanks to energy and food prices skyrocketing. The last thing that any elderly person needs to hear is that they may be getting LESS money to make ends meet. To me, this proposal sounds daft. Talk about cutting any government agency, but not SS! Bob
Not good.
No one will EVER collect all they’ve paid into SS. Ever.
That was the first thing that came to mind when I read this.
A candidate can’t tackle all issues in a campaign. Your message must be short and concise. This is incomprehensible. Bob
Sorry, but most Freepers are Boomers and many like me are already collecting S/S. Your ideas won't play well here. Maybe the freepers who are not Boomers should start their own FR auxiliary site?
Read my Post #44.
I never believed that he could win, but that no longer matters... Santorum JUST LOST.
He is apparently both dangerous and stupid.
Social Security: more than $600 billion
Foreign aid: less than $50 billion
He would tell the truth and give the history of what happened to the money!
It started...and here is why!
Exactly, and look at just this thread to see how many have swallowed the gummint and MSM propaganda claiming that SS and medicare are “entitlements”.
There is a whole slew of agencies to cut. EPA, DOE, IRS, just to name a couple.... This is definitely not going to be a good thing for Santorum.
The purpose of the “lock box” on Social Security is to prevent those Americans without benefit of election to Congress from raiding Social Security and using it for purposes other than those on which Congress desired to spend money. The lock box existed to keep your grubby little fingers off what was your own money (before the government snatched it from you and put it in the lock box); it never existed to keep Congress from raiding that stash of cash to dissipate on monuments to its own glory and kickbacks to campaign contributors and whatever else should happen to capture its attention. I’m absolutely certain that Gore, if he were an honest politician, would have explained this scheme, but the moderator certainly didn’t allow enough time.
Funding for the arts is another one. There is probably enough useless junk spending to cut that the budget could be balanced before they ever got to SS.
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