Social Security Warns Benefits Could Get Cut

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 8 Oct 13 | Damian Paletta@damianpaletta

[SkyPilot]

The Social Security Administration has begun warning the public it cannot guarantee full benefit payments if the debt ceiling isn’t increased.

When asked by the public, the agency is notifying beneficiaries that “Unlike a federal shutdown which has no impact on the payment of Social Security benefits, failure to raise the debt ceiling puts Social Security benefits at risk,” according to a person familiar with the agency directive.

The warning was assembled after the agency consulted with the Treasury Department, which would play a lead role in determining how the government handles payments if the borrowing limit isn’t raised soon.

“Our employees started receiving questions from the public, so the agency worked with Treasury to provide an answer they could use when asked about the debt ceiling by the public,” a Social Security Administration spokesman...

[kiltie65]

And in a “locked box”, Buckeye.

[I want the USA back]

“The occupier in the WH , wants max pain for the most people. If he can blame it on the GOP he’ll withhold SS payments to grandma in a heartbeat.”

I was going to say something like that, but you said it better.

[ridesthemiles]

You are correct.

We paid into the system what the GOVERNMENT EXPERTS required us to.

We did NOT set the rates or the top of the thresholds.....they did.

We are NOT setting the rate of return we are now receiving-—they are.

Telling me that I paid & my employer paid INVOLUNTARILY into that system for over 50 years & now telling me I am not allowed to collect anything is just plain stupid. \

I have been self-employed for over 25 years of those 50 years, so I had to pay BOTH halves—15.3%—and that came out of my earnings before I paid mortgage payments or anything else.

[SkyDancer]

I see your point but to call it an entitlement is pushing it. An entitlement basically means the government passed a law “entitling” you to certain things (such as SS) but you paid for it - you are entitled to your own money. Kinda sounds weird.

[Bullfrogg]

I am going gault:......may all your worldly goods, 401k, cd’s, and all your monetary investments be confiscated (taken away) by yer darlin prezident Obama

[kitkat]

>>>Your money was stolen and spent. It’s not there. It sucks, but that’s reality.>>>

Your original post said to stop S.S.

Since it was stolen from the people, let it be deducted from Zero’s million dollar vacations, etc. and deposited it in a “locked box” for re-payment to the S.S. payers. It’s OURS and we should be screaming for it back.

To ALL: Inform the House that they should be demanding repayment to the people who paid S.S. and are now suffering from the government theft of our money. The Obama phones alone cost the S.S.payers several million.

[oldbrowser]

Although millions of American get their monthly SS check, millions more do not.

And everybody will fight for their share.
However there is not enough to go around.
This is the hallmark of a bloated semi-socialist government that has exhausted it's resources.

Feckless representatives chosen for their unsustainable promises will not change their spendthrift ways until they are forced to stop.

[ridesthemiles]

How about revealing what YOUR age is?

I would like to know how far into paying SS in your paycheck you are.

[JRandomFreeper]

He's not my president. The GOP-E owns Obama.

And there isn't anything to take from me. Government got it all.

Food this week consists of homemade bread, feral pig, venison, home-grown eggs, and veggies from the garden.

You don't have to be rich in money to go Galt.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

In my fifties. I've paid much more in than I'll ever see. My money was stolen and spent, too. I'm as screwed as everybody else.

/johnny

[kabar]

Nancy Pelosi told us that SS does not contribute to the debt and deficit problem. The Dems have said that SS is solvent until 2035. The SS Trust Fund has $2.4 trillion in non-market, interest bearing T-bills. So if Obama cuts SS benefits, he and the Dems are going to have a lot of 'splaining to do.

The Reps should be all over this, but they lack the ability to articulate the issues. The uninformed public doesn't have a clue hence the Dems ability to get away with the default nonsense.

[Rusty0604]

Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t know that the gov’t does not have to pay SS. They think that they paid into the system for years and the gov’t promise to pay it back is as good as gold.

[kabar]

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued its most recent projections for Social Security’s income and outgo Jan. 26, along with its twice-yearly “Budget and Economic Outlook.” What those numbers show is that Social Security ran a $37 billion deficit last year, is projected to run a $45 billion deficit this year, and more red ink every year thereafter.

And don’t be misled by those who say the system can pay full benefits until about 2037 without making any changes to the law. That’s true, but does not change the fact that Social Security taxes no longer cover those benefits. The government is now borrowing money to pay them, and will do so every year for the foreseeable future. And keep in mind, if nothing is done, when those trust funds are exhausted, benefits would have to be cut by 22 percent in 2037, and more each year after that, according to the most recent report of the system’s trustees. By 2084, the system will generate only enough revenue to pay for 75 percent of promised benefit levels.

Feb. 16, 2011 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada:

Reid: Social Security has contributed not a single penny to the deficit. So we can talk about entitlements as long as you eliminate Social Security. . . . Social Security is not part of the problem we have in America with the deficit.

President Barack Obama’s Treasury Secretary, Jacob Lew, doesn’t go quite that far. But he did write a Feb. 22, 2011 opinion piece in USA Today claiming that Social Security “does not cause our deficits” and is “entirely self-financing”:

Lew: [L]ooking to the next two decades, Social Security does not cause our deficits.Social Security benefits are entirely self-financing. They are paid for with payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers throughout their careers.

Just let Obama try to cut SS. It will open Pandora's box if the Reps had any smarts--a big leap.

[clintonh8r]

That's right. If it had remained as as a supplement to peoples' retirement and hadn't become a piggy bank for disability scammers and a political tool, it wouldn't be in trouble.

[VRWCarea51]

Normally you and I agree on a lot, but I must take exception here. Social Security is not an entitlement program. I paid for it - to the tune of 15% in some years and 12.5% in others. I paid so much in FICA that I maxed out for more than 20 years of my working life. That’s *MY* money, taken from me forcibly by the Gubmint. I want it back.

Good Luck Pal. SSI is a TAX as ruled by the USSC. The government is under NO legal requirement to pay you a dime.

[ridesthemiles]

SS is an entitlement paid out of the general fund. The SS taxes you were forced to pay at gunpoint were stolen and put into the general fund and spent.

That’s reality.”””’

PLEASE explain in very complete detail how that is anywhere near the fault of the seniors who paid into the fund for all of their lives.

Democrats stole the money out of the Social Security fund when they started the massive Welfare system under President Johnson. This was the most massive wealth transfer ever in the USA.

Where do you think they got the money to pay for all the welfare, food stamps, WIC, Section 8 housing, free medical, free legal, free meals at school and most recently-—FREE Obamaphones??????

They stole the funds that all of us who were working had paid into and they kept on doing so.

SO-—PLEASE explain how any of us seniors are responsible for this empty fund?

[kabar]

Social Security is not an entitlement program.

Yes it is and it is a Ponzi scheme.

[ThePatriotsFlag]

Nice try, but the money I gave them is in a trust fund and was not to be touched. What? They touched it, spent it? Then they STOLE it from me. My recourse is for them to go to jail for THEFT, or I must devise a plan to STEAL it back from them. (Devising......)

[dfwgator]

Social Security is not an entitlement program.

That's not how the government sees it.

[jazzlite]

...”but....it’s in a SECURE TRUST FUND with MY name on it....right??”...

Read Thomas Paine’s COMMON SENSE..He figured all this out back there in 1776. We are not officially under a monarchy but we might as well be.