Posted on 04/20/2015 7:27:43 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Both Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are speaking bluntly about entitlement reform, advocating means-testing for Social Security retirement benefits as a way to save the system for those who need it.
“These are real ideas,“ Christie said in New Hampshire on Friday. “And, you know, I’ve had a lot of people say, ‘Well, why would you possibly want to suggest those things?’ Because we have to. We have to. And if you want to start a national conversation, let’s start one that matters.”
“We’re $18 trillion in debt,” Graham told Fox News Sunday. “Eighty million baby boomers are going to retire in the next 20 to 30 years. We’re going to wipe out Social Security and Medicare. We have to adjust the age of retirement for younger people. People of my income level are going to have to have their benefits means-tested.” […]
Christie said it’s a question of cost—and of making the system “fairer for everybody.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Good for them. Everyone should be talking about entitlement reform. It has to be done. Spending has to be cut too. It the GOP is serious about remaining a viable national party, it has to take these issues on.
**‘Well, why would you possibly want to suggest those things?’ Because we have to. We have to. And if you want to start a national conversation, let’s start one that matters.” **
Why? Because you spent the money I have been putting in that program my entire working life like drunken Sailors on shore leave!
WHY NOT CUT OTHER GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS?!?
All of the money taken from me for Social Security and Medicare I consider an interest free loan to the Fed Gov.
Any payments that come are loan repayments, not some "entitlement".
How about throwing the illegals and other "gamesters" out of the program for starters.
These two GOP libs are unpopular in their own states, they agree with Dems on most issues, now they propose this very unpopular idea that the Chamber of Commerce whores are pushing, I can only guess that its mainly to get campaign funding from them, and funding for the defense department.
No. They can ethically change the retirement age - but only for those who are more than ten (preferably fifteen) years from that age. They cannot means-test social security on people who have paid in for 40 years and who planned their other retirement savings with the promise that they would have the social security retirement income based on their payments. To do so would turn social security into yet another welfare program.
**Good for them. Everyone should be talking about entitlement reform. It has to be done. Spending has to be cut too. It the GOP is serious about remaining a viable national party, it has to take these issues on.**
If I paid into a program with the promise of getting money back, hos is it an entitlement?
Why not reform welfare and cut spending elsewhere?
Yeah, anything except replacing entitlements with jobs, I guess? If deregulation and tax reform to allow businesses to create more jobs does not come with whatever “reforms” they think to institute, we’ll stay stuck at 30 percent unemployment—and have a bigger bureaucracy to suck up more cash while it conducts the means testing.
Christie said it’s a question of cost—and of making the system “fairer for everybody.”
Sailors on shore leave are more frugal than the federal government.
Because people can now create private nest eggs for retirement and/or big medical bills without that nest egg account being subject to income taxation (that's the feature of the Steve Forbes flat tax proposal and FairTax), it tremendously reduces the financial pressure on both Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. And that means we can make major reforms of entitlement programs to reduce its cost.
I completely agree. I'm among those planning to at least semi-retire in the next 15-20 years, but we can't continue to kick the can down the road. A gradual fix might be much more tolerable than a sudden one.
As this topic could likely be political suicide, any discussion has to be prefaced by a disclaimer that no currently-retired people will be affected. Democrats and the MSM would love for any Republican hopefuls to come out and say they agree in principal to entitlement reform. They want to paint the GOP as the party "stealing" Social Security from the elderly.
I’m not a wealthy person, no where near it. But you know what? It’s just wrong not to pay people their Social Security INSURANCE after years of being forced to pay premiums.
There's not nearly enough to be gained from simply reforming welfare. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, along with interest payments on our debt, are by far the largest payments we make from government coffers.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for across-the-board reform in all areas, but the ones that will make the biggest dent on our spending will be from SS.
HOW does his reasoning stand UNQUESTIONED???
What? - bring in illegals to pay for baby-boomer retirement... but these same illegals are having BABY-BOOMERS pay for THEIR free govt. stuff - NOW.
How is this good???
Every pyramid scheme eventually gets to the point where the money from newly defrauded “investors” no longer covers the payouts to the previously defrauded “investors”.
Were it not for the additional fraud of propping it up with the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government, the Social Security pyramid scheme would have collapsed decades ago.
Thanks a Lot, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, you corrupt socialist bastard!
Politicians were allowed to spend the money that was supposed to be saved.
Politicians can burn through money faster than a laser.
The Greatest Generation were survivors. You think they didn’t know this ponzi scheme would someday fall apart?
They were watching the Baby Boomers smoke pot and protest and screw themselves silly. They are in their graves laughing their asses off.
The reform proposals I've seen DO NOT suggest NOT paying people their SS. Rather, they're talking a mix of raising the retirement ages and delaying payments, increasing certain taxes (like removing the cap on SS taxes), or even apply a means' test to those with other sources of income.
So the entitlements can remain in place once income tax reform is instituted?
Both are the problem.
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