Posted on 03/25/2015 8:13:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he was an “emphatic advocate” of a balanced budget amendment, and expressed support for means testing Social Security and raising the retirement age on Monday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel.
“I think the penny plan has an awful lot of force to it, and I am an emphatic advocate of a Balanced Budget Amendment” Cruz stated.
Cruz added, “you’re going to be hard pressed to come up with a cost-cutting program that I’m not going to support. I do think the military, we need to look at the growing national security threats, and we need to make sure we take care of the men and women in the military and we provide what we need to protect this nation. And also if you look at the budget, you cannot bring the budget into control without taking on entitlement reform. Two-thirds of the federal budget is entitlements. So, if you don’t talk about entitlements, you can’t do it.”
Cruz expressed support for means testing Social Security and raising the retirement age, but he clarified that he was talking about future generations
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
So far, I’ve paid the maximum in social security ever year i’ve worked since about age 25 and haven’t received a dime. nOw as I hit 60 you want to end SS NOW? Fine just pay me back what I paid in and we can call it even.
Means test what we’ve earned over the decades? I don’t think so.
This is a rare wrong answer from Cruz. If we means test Social Security, that makes it welfare, which changes the nature of the program completely. Raising the retirement age is fine. It's already going from 65 to 67 gradually, and I have no problem with raising it to 70, 72, or whatever it takes to balance that program, so long as we don't mess with people within ten years of eligibility and we keep the option to retire earlier with reduced benefits.
First glitch indeed. That’s the difference between liberals and conservatives. We call ‘em as we see ‘em. The rats lock step with their leader regardless of whether it’s good for the country or not.
You get your money back in approx. 4 years...go do the math. But, if Warren Buffet draws $ 35K a year for the 25 years he currently qualifies, does that really make sense?
No one said END SS. For those who did not work where they got a pension, or didn’t make enough to save for retirement, SS should be there. It IS a welfare system.
For those who are well-off, it should be considered any other tax that we’ve paid over the years. Yes, politicians TOLD US it was for OUR RETIREMENT.
Politicians LIE. Period.
It’s actually one of the most relevant questions to ask. This is an immediate, life-and-death emergency problem, not twenty years from now, but twenty years ago. Unfortunately, we’ll probably have to wait for a whole generation to die off before we can even begin to craft a solution, and by then, we’ll probably already be bankrupt.
For all practical purposes, SS is an income tax. Means testing just removes the ambiguity.
How about the upper limit on SS tax is removed and then the whole shebang is merged with the income tax, and then kill the income tax?
Why do you expect taxes paid by you over a lifetime to be given back? At whose expense?
I'm sorry you could not see through the propaganda, and were unaware of the underlying reality, but your previous taxes legally entitle you to no part of anyone else's future taxes.
I hope, for your sake, that you didn't rely on government promises to fund your retirement. That would have been... unwise.
I’d like to know what Cruz will do to keep politicians’ hands off SS. Remember the lock box? The lock was broken years ago.
I’d also like to see the money go to people who actually worked and paid into it. Seems to me SS has been used far too long for people who never paid into it. It’s another form of public assistance.
Is your calculation based on 6.2% or 12.4% (self employed)?
Damn, they are so quick to steal money from the average guy. The top 1%, not so much.
Means-tested Social Security?
Oops...I’ll bet he’ll be walking that one back very shortly.
I agree. SS is supposed to be insurance. The wealthy already get a smaller percentage of their contributions back. This leftism pure and simple. I am sorry Cruz believes this.
Cruz expressed support for means testing Social Security
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This is the kind of statement that will do him in. Be careful, Mr. Cruz, very very careful. Think and rethink before you speak because many people, especially your detractors, are hanging on your every word.
Oh , I missed the part where I had an option not to pay.
If that’s the case end it and just pay indigent elderly welfare.
>>We have partial means testing already—it’s called including SS payments in gross income. <<
There’s another way we have partial means testing. If you made more than a set maximum amount each year of your working life, your contributions ceased that year. How’s that means testing, you might ask?
Your SS payments in retirement are based on what you paid in, not on your total salary each year. If you made a million dollars, you aren’t getting paid SS based on that million, but rather on the salary cap for that year, which back in the 1970’s was as low as $10-15,000.
In other words, those well off throughout their working years are only earning SS based on a small portion of their actual earnings.
Besides, for a guy who wants to abolish the IRS, means-testing can get to be a really messy financial calculation.
No, it's not. It's really not.
Oh, they sell it as an enforced savings plan. They tell you you have ownership in it.
But it's always just been a tax and an associated entitlement payout. Everything else is just the normal political B.S. People of my generation (I'm in my mid-40s) mostly assume that we'll never see a dime out of Social Security anyway.
I agree. I've paid the max for 30 years. The last time I received an "accounting" from social security, the amount confiscated totals over $300,000.
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