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 ...
Three things you ought to know:
(1) That money you "paid in"? It's a sunk cost. Your parents or grandparents are spending it. Wave it bye-bye.
(2) The only way to put SocSec on a sustainable path is a big benefit cut on the old, a big tax increase on the young, or some of both. Don't waste time fantasizing that cutting Congressional salaries, or foreign aid, or the muskrat-pelt subsidy will do anything whatever of significance to reduce the SocSec deficit.
(3) This goes double for Medicare. Medicare's insolvency is coming even sooner. Get prepared for it.
The greater portion of all the taxes and fees that we have paid was stolen from us and used to buy votes.
That money is gone. It will not somehow be magically returned to us.
SS is one of many bad debts that will someday soon be written off in some way...there is no other option..it will happen. The method will probably be means testing....it is just another welfare program, your payments to the fund were stolen and wasted.
below is an earlier post I made today on another thread...it has some relevance here. I was thinking about the looming loss of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
There are too many debts, too many obligations... there is no possible way to deliver on these promises.
The USA will default on the whole mess. Or, after a separation of the US into two or more parts the parts will refuse to make good on the debts and obligations.
I also think it is a possibility that two US currencies will be created, the current US dollar will become the external international dollar and within the country the holders of current dollars will be issued a new internal US dollar. This will be a default on all US dollars held outside the country... it will mean war.
It is also obvious that the US is itching to get into a major war somewhere, anywhere, in order to have an external boogieman to blame a dollar collapse on. Russia? China?
There is no way we are going to pay off all the debts and there is no way the current administration is going to allow blame to fall on themselves.... desperate measures are coming IMO.
Exactly my sentiments....it should be means tested and phased out over say twenty years or so. SS is nothing but a ponsy scheme and has never been anything else.
Paul paid in also.
Regardless of the value of the dollar fluctuating over time and other stimulants, the impact has probably been the same to the pay check of 1955 as they are to the paycheck of 2015.
The only audible answer out there, is to drop SS entirely, effective in advance of those who can instead plan their own retirement 20-25 years out.
Two days into the campaign, and already freepers are encouraging Cruz to keep his principles under his hat.
This can't end well.
Sure. Just try emailing the Social Security office and asking for it back, right now. That's how much it's "your money".
It was your money. It's already been spent. You can hope that the government is still in a position to borrow money when they deem you can have yours.
Re-institute welfare reform while you’re at it.
And drug test EBTers.
That might be an option. Our brilliant legislators here in Oregon are working on a plan to require every business to set up a retirement plan for its workers. Do that, as well as allow the SS tax to go into that account. Make it portable so it travels with the employee. When those people reach retirement age, they’ll have to see if there’s enough money to do so. In the meantime, means-test SS for everyone else & start a program of moving money back to individuals to fund their own retirement. We’re going to have to pay back that $18 trillion one way or another. Better get on with it.
That’s not true...at one point the SS fund was so large the government...as it always does...commandeered it and passed a law making it’s contributions go directly into the general fund. I think that was the plan all along but the big lie about everyone having an act. was what they used to pass it!!!
I think it will play well to the young people who mistakenly elected Obama. They know that the Social Security fund will soon be empty. They know it’s a scam, like the purported employment numbers. Perhaps now they’ll listen to some who talks rationally about government spending.
That may be, but if they are willing to bankrupt their grandchildren and great grandchildren in order to make sure that their check doesn't get cut, the heck with 'em.
It’s your money just like the income tax was your money ..until you sent it in!!!
No it’s not. Your parents and grandparents are spending it. Go ask them to give you some back.
As I said farther up the thread, this may be a noble effort, but it has to be handled like the election dynamite it is. Losing the nomination or the Nov election because of it isn’t a winning plan.
I’m sure Cruz is going to quickly realize this has to be rolled out in a very careful manner, and probably AFTER winning an election.
SS was never intended to pay out, other than to orphans and widows... average life expectancy when it was enacted was lower than the age where SS would pay out... Life expectancy was 61 in 1935 when SS was enacted.
It was always designed and intended to be a ponzy scheme, it was never intended to be what it has become.
That’s an interesting point.
My guess is the Groupons that Liz Warren offers them for student loan remission will be more enticing.
“That’s not true...at one point the SS fund was so large the government...as it always does...commandeered it and passed a law making it’s contributions go directly into the general fund.”
Yes, it is true. Even before they mixed it in with the general fund, it was still all pooled into one fund to immediately pay the current beneficiaries. There were never any individual accounts.
Well, that is sort of a kick in the balls from a candidate I support.
Work hard, plan for your retirement - and get cheated out of the money you were FORCED to pay in to Social Security.
But don’t worry. It is perfectly legal. The SCOTUS has already determined that Social Security is just an entitlement with a tax attached; you don’t own it. See Fleming vs. Nestor:
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/is-there-right-social-security
In reality you are right....but they sold it claiming everyone's money was going into their own acct.....that was the big lie!!!
Raise the current Age 67 Full Benefit age to Age 70. The Life Expectancy in this Country has increased way beyond the expected number of Years the current Benefits would be paid out.
Add one Month per year going forward to get the Full Benefit. 2016, 67 + one Month. 2017, 67 + 2 Months. In 36 Years the Full Benefit tops out at 70.
It won’t fix it, but it would extend the viability of SS.
The entire SS System has morphed way beyond its intended purposes. Our generous Government has decided that Benefits are paid out to people who paid little or nothing into the System, which screws over all of us who got nailed every Payday of our Working Lives.
Yes, I do understand that even today if you wait until you are 70 you get more Money than age 67. The difference is the Age 62 early Benefit would be adjusted down as a percentage of the Full Benefit amount, making it a less desirable to take it early.
Remember, under Reagan the Full Benefit Age was increased from Age 65 to Age 67 for those who fell into certain age Demographics. Mine was changed from Age 65 to Age 66.
Disclaimer. I will be applying for the Age 62 Early Benefit.
My reasoning is very simple. I have been under treatment for Leukemia for over nine years and the odds of me living long enough to get my Full Benefit at Age 67 is in doubt.
Just my opinion on the subject.
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