Posted on 12/30/2016 2:28:55 AM PST by expat_panama
Social Security benefits will be cut at the start of 2017 for everyone who has yet to turn 62.
Those cuts will grow in each year to 2022, reaching 7% for everyone now 56 and under, as the official retirement age rises two months per year to 67.
Those benefit cuts are part of the daunting math for Social Security and the federal budget that could cause speed bumps for, or perhaps even curb, President-elect Donald Trump's big fiscal plans.
1) Once the retirement age rises to 67, Social Security's early retirement penalty will cut annual benefits by 30%...
2) The Congressional Budget Office affirmed last week that Social Security's Trust Fund is on course to run out in 2029...
3) If you take that 29% cut on top of a 30% early retirement penalty, those retiring at 62 would get just 50% of their current full-retirement benefit, essentially abandoning the idea of a Social Security safety net for early retirees.
4) In January, the CBO will... ...show a Social Security cash shortfall of $450 billion in 2027 alone...
...the day of reckoning for Social Security, which has always been comfortably off in the distance, now appears to be just around the corner...
...GOP proposals to reform Social Security would further hike the official retirement age, while raising the earliest retirement age, now 62, in tandem. That approach would avoid further increases in penalties for retiring early...
...Yet a rise in the earliest retirement age would most affect those who have difficulty extending their careers and little savings to fall back on. Social Security Administration data show that about 30% of beneficiaries in their early 60s rely on the program for at least 80% of total income.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
“All we have to do to reduce Health Care costs is to enforce the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the Clayton Acts to break up all the medical monopolies. Health care costs could and would drop almost 80%. All hospitals and doctor offices will have to have posted prices.”
You read my mind. The only part you missed is hanging hospital administrators from lampposts at hospital entrances.
It happened in 1983 with the Faustian bargain Reagan struck with Tip O'Neil. Benefits were cut, i.e., the age to collect full benefits was phased in over time from 65 to 67 and taxes increased. I suspect that the next reform of SS will be similar, i.e., a combination of benefit cuts and tax increases along with some sort of means testing.
SS is a pay as you go system, i.e., today's workers pay for today's retirees. In 1950 there were 16 workers for every retiree; today there are less than three; and by 20230 the number will be down to two workers for every retiree. The longer we wait to reform SS, the more difficult and painful the solution will be.
The Ponzi scheme collapses....who’d a thunk?
IMO, the sooner, the better; especially for the younger generations enslaved for the vote buying promises of yesteryear.
It depends on what kind of work you do. And with labor participation rates at 50 years lows, finding a job at age 62 is much more difficult. We have brought in 35 million legal permanent immigrants (equivalent to the population of Canada) since 1990. We have a huge surplus of labor, which also depresses wages.
SSI is funded from the General Fund.
Since 1983 Congressmen and all federal employees had to pay into SS.
Yes, it is.
Holy S-H-I-T, is this FR, or the AARP??
I should have read the thread fully before posting the 1st time....
Anyone bring up A1S8?
Where’s the call to DISMANTLE?
Return of liberty\freedom\choice (it WAS ‘your $$’..before the govt got a hold on it)?
All I’m reading is “If we did X\Y\Z, the program would last *LONGER*”. Sweet baby Jesus! I expect to see a few before I’m done this post scream about “Don’t touch *MY* S.S.\MediXYZ\etc.”.
“It’s not Fascism when WE do it” *spit*.
Medicare and SS will consume the entire federal budget if not reformed. 40% of all Medicare costs are funded thru the General Fund. By law, the premiums collected to fund Medicare Part B only cover 25% of the costs. The remaining 75% comes from the General Fund. With 10,000 Baby Boomers retiring every day for the next 20 years, the costs of Medicare will only increase. We will double the number of those over 65 by 2030. By 2030, one in five will be over 65.
God forbid anyone would want to spend their few remaining years on this planet without a boss.
I don’t think that will come close to solving the problem. The estimates are that under current taxes and payments there is only 2/3 the amount of money needed long term. Benefits would have to be cut by one-third (across the board or focused on the rich or the youngest retirees like you suggest), taxes increased by 50% or some combination of the two. Early retirees who are 62 and normal age retirees between 67 and 67.25 years old don’t consume one third of the social security payments.
Hate to say it but I think what will happen is that they will get rid of the SS tax cap. Right no only the first $118,500 of income is subjected to SS tax. I’ve seen estimates that if you got rid of the cap it would fund SS until the 2070s. If you also put a maximum cap on benefits it would extend it even longer. I think this will be the most politically viable way of saving SS.
As far as getting rid of it totally I believe that is impossible. If we tried to do that the democrats would hammer us. And with 66% of retired people depending on SS for 50% or more of their retirement we might never win another election.
Now if only you could get companies to hire 60 year olds.
Only if their is a free-market choice component ( aka 401k type plan Which FDR wanted and it never occured ) and take it out of Congresses hands, oversight yes, but not control. As much as I can't stand them, if SSI dollars go out and buy an annuity of my choice from the private sector, I could live with it. I wish we had a dozen men and women like John Bogel to sit on the board of this private system. Mr Bogel is too old and every day we have him is a blessing.
IMHO Fedzilla basically tried to mimic insurance / annuitization with SSI. I suggest anytime they try to "mimic" the private sector ( can you say Obamacare? ) that they think again. we have had over 80 yrs of they me-too-ism fubar's enough is enough.
This is the same the-sky-is-falling song-and-dance they do every few years.
Then in the wee late hours, Congress rushes through a resolution to shore up the fund for a few more years. Crisis averted — until the next the-sky-is-falling song-and-dance.
They have been doing this comedy shtick for the last 50 years.
Racism, blacks don’t live as long due to their unhealthy life styles. No spouse, they keep the money that was paid in.
That aside my late husband died of a massive heart attack at 57. At 68 I draw off his account, as mine would have been $350 a month. Vs drawing off his at $1200 a month. They kept every dime I paid in.
“Since 1983 Congressmen and all federal employees had to pay into SS.”
______________
In general that statement is true; however, in the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that those federal employees covered under the original Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), who did not elect to transfer to the newer Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS), did not contribute to SS after 1983 and do not collect SS upon retirement unless they earned enough SS credits thru some other eligible employment.
CSRS employees/retirees also are not eligible to collect their spouse’s SS benefits should their spouse predecease them.
Absolutely——the whole system is ROTTEN and has always been unconstitutional since 1913. It is the whole system which has to be reformed and we have to begin with our “legal” system. All these “judges” and “lawyers” have set up a system to keep themselves wealthy and employed for life doing worthless, parasitical cr*p that is unconstitutional and leaches off private property and makes everything so expensive, esp. “health care”.
We need to repeal everything to pre-1913 when the Jekyll Is. crew destroyed our Constitution using that evil puppet, Pres. Wilson. IRS has got to go first along with the Federal Reserve because they use our tax money to brainwash our children into stupidity so they are slaves for life.
Once we return to the Constitution and true freedom and Rule of Law, everything will be so much cheaper and affordable, even health care and “education”. All of it is an intentional evil socialist joke now to collapse our country.
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