[khelus]

Conservatives to a man agree that Social Security and Medicare are Ponzi schemes, dependent on ever increasing new enrollees to pay for benefits to people above them in the pyramid. . . .

Social Security as initial created under FICA by Roosevelt was NOT a Ponzi scheme.

• Social Security was voluntary.
• The contribution was 1% of your income.
• The card was not to be used for ID.
• FICA contributions were kept separate from the General Fund.
• Money received from Social Security was not to be taxed.

However

• IIRC under Clinton, with Al Gore as the deciding vote Social Security became taxable.
• Social Security became mandatory.
• The contribution is up to over 7% of one's income up to ~$90,000.
• Your Social Security Number is now your major form of ID.
• Under Johnson contributions to Social Security started to mixed in with the General Fund.
• Money received from Social Security is now taxable.
• IIRC under Nixon, Disability Coverage (SSD, SSDI) was added to Social Security.

. . .Waves of new immigrants which have more than doubled the population of America in my lifetime not only will not cure our Ponzi dilemma, . . .

They most definitely will not. low wage immigrant households are subsidized by US tax payers by $20,000 NET per year per household the the tens of thousand of illegal cost NET hundreds of Billions per year.

[whd23]

IIRC under Clinton, with Al Gore as the deciding vote Social Security became taxable.

You recall slightly incorrectly.

SS benefits became taxable in 1984. However in 1993 Gore did provide the tie-breaking vote to increase the taxable amount of benefits for 'high income' beneficiaries.

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