Posted on 02/22/2023 9:16:55 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The mainstream media coverage concerning President Biden’s remarks about Social Security during his State of the Union address and the Republican reaction has been remarkable in its ability to miss the point. Pundits sparred over whether the Republicans or Democrats won, when the real story is who lost in this sideshow. After all, it is the average, hard-working American who has paid into and therefore deserves Social Security.
Unfortunately, everyday Americans who need to know whether or not they can rely on the trust fund received no worthy news coverage, and likely won’t for the next decade.
During his speech, Biden said, “So we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now?” In other words, we have agreed not to reduce benefits that weren’t materially at-risk anyway. It was an agreement to do nothing, and Congress erupted in applause.
That moment of unanimity made Congress look like a townhall of Yondu and the Ravagers, a spectacle of political theater through and through.
As cosmetic as the exercise was, it spells real trouble for the millions of Americans who are in or approaching retirement. At this point, someone who is turning 76 years old today on average expects to outlive the system’s ability to pay scheduled benefits. That is, in a good economy.
If you are younger than 76 years old, the key point about the State of the Union Address to understand is simple: stop worrying about what the GOP is going to do to Social Security, and start paying attention to the nothingness that both parties are doing to stabilize the system on which millions depend for retirement security.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
As soon as the booby boomer kick it wil be in the black again.
“...the Republican reaction has been remarkable in its ability to miss the point.”
I have a bad feeling about 2024.
I got it! Let’s tell the government that all Social Security recipients are Ukrainian! Then the government will make it rain!
All defict spending is inflatioary. SS is not different than any of the other defict spending.
Follow the University of Chicago plan that Free Market people wrote for Pinochet when Chile had a change in government in the early 1970s:
The only consequences are that:
It would not work as smoothly for us because the program has festered for far too long, but the general principles do work.
Let’s have another Paul Ryan type agenda for 2024 in which Republicans put reforming Social Security and Medicare on the table. Let’s see if they can lose every single Senate election this time.
I think entitlements should be reformed but putting it on the agenda in this political environment is a death wish.
> Fake argument. SS will never “run out of money” … <
You’re right. Social Security will continue to be funded by the government’s printing press…as long as that’s what Congress wants.
And as you noted, this will be driver of inflation. Of course, it can be mitigated by careful cuts elsewhere. Cuts in foreign aid, elimination of payments to illegal aliens, etc. But pigs will fly to the moon before any of that happens.
How about they just pay back what they took from the system to pay for other programs. Call it reparations, the left loves that word. ;)
I AGREE!
FIX it, don’t CUT it.
You (the government) that has STOLEN our money for so long, wants US to pay it back? F THAT!
Sorry Charlie or Charly or Charline, or Pat, or whatever your name is today.
Let Democrats take this issue.
Let Democrats formulate the plan.
Let Democrats sell this to the public.
Let Democrats gather the necessary votes in Congress.
If necessary, at the end, when all the real work has been done — by Democrats — the GOP might contribute to the last 2% of the effort.
This is a tar baby. Smart people don’t touch it.
I started howling with laughter when the article writer said the magic words “trust fund”.
No such animal.
It is like having a public policy discussion on the care and feeding of Unicorns.
It is stupid to run on this in 2024. The media will distort anything a republican says about social security. They could work on it after the 2024 election. It is a losing argument in 2024. We can count on Linda Graham to bring up cutting social security a few months before the election.
The Chile plan was touted by Newt Gingrich when he was running for president. As he said, it would turn all Americans into investors, with an interest in the success of capitalism. Can’t have that with today’s Uniparty class of politicians.
“FIX it, don’t CUT it.”
It can’t be fixed, as the money has been spent.
We can print the money, and we will, but you are likely to be disappointed in what you get in terms of what it will do for you after it’s inflated away.
The political will is not there to actually fix government programs, including SS, so we’re not going to do it.
I fully expect that they will declare SS insolvent.
Then raid/ appropiate all 401k accounts.
They may try to rationalize this by saying the gov is going to take over 401 disbursements. And you 401k is being “rolled into” SS.
No Separate Social Security “lock box” as Gore liked to say. Just funnel it all into the general fund.
We could hope
What is projected to happen in 2034 is that Social Security will run out of its excess reserves with the result being that retirees will only get about 77% of their current amount (about a 25% decrease).
The above is worse case scenario.
Of course, no politicians will allow themselves to be holding the bag should that scenario play out so you just know they will come up with something "miraculous" between now and then. Most likely during the 2032 campaign season.
Cut allotments for congress
Never happen. They will just keep making fiat money.
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