Jeb Bush: Social Security Means-Testing 'Ought to Be Considered'

CNS News ^ | June 1, 2015 | Susan Jones

[BradtotheBone]

(CNSNews.com) - Jeb Bush says he would considering pushing back the Social Security retirement age by as many as five years and scaling back benefits for Americans who paid into the system but who also have accumulated wealth.

"We need to look over the horizon and begin to phase in, over an extended period of time, going from (age) 65 to 68 or 70. And that by itself will help sustain the retirement system for anybody under the age of 40," Bush, a potential contender for the Republican presidential nomination, told CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

Bush also wants to phase out benefits for higher earners, who have paid into the system for their entire working lives.

"What about means testing?" Bob Schieffer asked Bush.

"I think it ought to be considered, for sure," Bush replied.

As conceived by the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Social Security was intended to be a retirement insurance program for all working Americans regardless of income, funded by mandatory payroll taxes.

Means-testing would turn Social Security into a wealth transfer program, diverting payroll contributions from those who earn more to those who earn less.

And if Jeb Bush has his way on immigration, some of those lower-income workers would be people who came to the United States illegally.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

As so many of the posts here illustrate, Social Security can never be eliminated in one step. Too many people feel they are "owed" a universal government entitlement. Social Security has never been an individual savings account which people first pay into and then draw out of. Social Security has always been yet another form of compulsory income redistribution. This socialist scheme is far more insidious than other welfare entitlements in that so many people wrongly feel it is their "right". They demand their government check with no concern for how much they really paid in or whose money they are actually stealing.

I am no fan of Jeb Bush, but I give him credit for being the only Republican presidential candidate who is suggesting anything that could actually lead to an end of this socialistic Ponzi scheme. Making Social Security means tested is the only feasible way of exposing it as the arbitrary tax and welfare payment it really is. Only when people are able to finally see it clearly as yet another socialistic payout will it be contained and then ultimately eliminated. It would be far better for our country to pay millions of elderly poor a welfare check than continue this phoney income redistribution lie that makes otherwise conservative Americans whine like socialists deadbeats.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

“Then SS would become nothing but another welfare program. Why should my wife and I who paid into it be denied because we have saved for retirement?”

It is just another welfare program. It’s another type of revenue stream into the government that the government reserves the right to use the way they see fit. Do you get monthly statements about how much money there is in your personal social security retirement fund, also showing how much your money has grown from investment (like a 401K)? Do you have the ability to chose how ‘your money’ is invested within your government held social security retirement account? Of course not, because there is no ‘account’ with you name on it in which your contributions are being kept and invested.

Consider this. You and your wife BOTH worked and paid into social security. If, God forbid, you or your spouse should die right after retirement the remaining spouse would only receive the social security benefit of one of you - not both. If you had been allowed to elect not to pay into social security, and invest that money, the investments of both of you would be available to the remaining spouse. As it stands it is not your money. It’s the government’s money, and you will only get back what the government allows you to get back.

[C. Edmund Wright]

The age should go up......people are living what, 20 years longer on average? It should slowly escalate - SLOWLY and exempt those close to retirement age of course - until the age reaches the equivalent of what 65 was then.

[CdMGuy]

I am so sick of these Bushes and the wars they have gotten us into. Bush No. 1 invaded Iraq to help his royal buddies in Kuwait. Bush No. 2 followed suit in order to rid the world of Saddam Hussein. So, how did that work out for us, not even considering the thousands of American military killed or maimed?

Thanks to Bush No. 2, we got stuck with Obama due to so many voters’ disillusionment with Bush No. 2. From Obama, we got a Middle East in turmoil, and Muslim terrorists martyring thousands of Christians.

Could things be more disastrous for us at home and abroad? Now, we have Bush No. 3 telling us that he supports raising the retirement age, and for folks like me who worked hard and saved equally as hard, now he wants us to give up our right to the Social Security we paid for.

What a POS. F you JEB.

[Parley Baer]

How about getting people off of Social Security who in my mind have no business being on it. Last time I was in a Social Security office, out of say 100 people I would say maybe 5 were over 60 years old. Way to many people on Social Security other than for retirement.

[RWGinger]

Yes it has been inching up and it should be.
Your idea is actually being implemented and as you say the age should continue to go up even beyond 67
Jeb is the one who aid it needed to increase from 65
Duh it is and will go up even more.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

So, Jebbie wants to change the rules after the game has been played.

Go away, John Ellis Bush.

[novemberslady]

Bumping your post at #59

Where are all the CUT welfare, food stamp, obamaphones, medicaid voices.

No, first they steal your money at gunpoint.
Then they steal it again...

And if you're self employed, you really get taken to the cleaners.

[Kickass Conservative]

At age 65, yes. Ages 62 to 64, no.

I’m currently going Broke paying our ridiculously high Obamacare fueled Monthly Healthcare Premium of $1,900.
I have Leukemia, so I have no choice but to pay, pay and pay.

I’ve had Health Insurance since I was 18 Years Old and I don’t think I even used it until I hit 38. That’s why they call it Insurance, or used to. LOL

Can’t wait to see 2016 will bring.

[cherry]

we're asking too much of the young people as it is, now we're gonna tell them to pay more and pay longer and retire when they're practically dead?.....I'm not for it...

I'm not for "means testing" per se, but I do think there is a group receiving multiple govt pensions and they should be indexed....

some people worked for the govt and got that big pension and had a little sliver of private work and then they end up with SS too....

disability has got to stop being the panacea it is for so many...it should be reserved for those confined to wheelchairs, or horribly disfigured. or some terrible disorder....it shouldn't be for stress, knee or back pain, or fibromyalgia, etc...that is my opinion.....

[Myrddin]

55 and older: Offer a one-time, lump-sum payment of $100,000 to the beneficiary in exchange for forgoing future payments

Just a small problem...I'm turning 59 this year. Two years ago the "accounting" for my social security "contributions" was well over $300,000 in principal only without any consideration for interest on the money confiscated. You want me to take a $200,000 "haircut"? Bullshit.

[cherry]

when I think of the pittance my parents received while they were alive and I think of all the freebies and SS and Medicaid the illegals are given, it makes my blood boil....

SERVE THE CITIZENS FIRST!

[Dagnabitt]

Good plan Jeb, you jawless bag of flesh, campaign on a platform of stealing people’s retirement money and merging our homeland with Mexico.

[Popman]

-——I see this as happening eventually and is helping me to decide to start drawing at 62. I could see myself waiting until full retirement age (66 for me) and pulling the same I’d get at 62.-——

I just yesterday checked my SS account...I’m 56 and the difference between drawing at 66 10 months and drawing at 62 is about $ 600 a month less...

If I wait until 72 I’d get about $ 600 more per month, of course I’d probably be dead... So I’m retiring at 66 10 months ...

[Menehune56]

Thanks for this information, pinging for future reference,

[Graybeard58]

BTW - I am applying for SS at Age 62 this Year. My Medical Condition does not work out for me waiting to Age 66 for my Full Benefit. Have to get it while I can.

If you wait until you are disabled, S.S. Disability pays significantly more than regular S.S.

Not suggesting that you do that.

I retired at age 54 and started getting regular S.S. checks at 62, Medicare at age 65.

[Nip]

Social Security means testing is nothing more than massive government sponsored robbery.

We are forced to contribute to Social Security; check every pay stub you have ever received. And some twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years after your forced contribution an unelected bureaucrat determines that you are worth too much and steals (aka redirects) part of the money confiscated from your paychecks to someone more needy.

What standard is he using? When did it go into effect? Are the computations subject to adjustments at a later date? Is there any appeal process?

Failure to provide concrete answers to these questions BEFORE the first dime is stolen reflects the true nature of Social Security means testing.

Talk about a massive incentive not to work!

[Kickass Conservative]

No, no Disability. It would get me another $500 a Month if I was approved, but having Leukemia really doesn’t qualify unless you have less than a Year to live.

Now, if I was Bi-Polar. LOL

[crusher2013]

The problem with raising the Social Security age is that you assume that there w/b jobs for people in their 60’s-70’s.

If they do this you will see lots of old people living in cars.

[Heart-Rest]