Greenspan warns against deficits (says to cut social security)

CNN ^ | 02/24/04

[hoosierboy]

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Congress Wednesday to take quick action to fix the nation's swollen budget deficit, saying it could impair the ability to pay Social Security benefits and weigh on the broader economy.

[Brownie74]

Are you kidding me? What about Medicare and Medicaid for openers. A vast majority of these illegals are using forged birth certificates, drivers license, and Social Security cards to get Section 8 housing, food stamps, and other freebies.

Ever heard of anchor babies?

[Grampa Dave]

Bingo! You win the door prize for why this article's headline was written this way.

Yeah, but all the Democrats hear is, 'CUT Social Security'. And they will play that up in the next month. Just watch!

[expatpat]

The fact is that my monthly payment has been reduced by the raise in retirement age -- that is a cut in anyone's dictionary.

Deferral is certainly a cut if the effect of the deferral is never remedied -- and it isn't. What you miss in the first year or so, you never get back. (And anyone who knows about discounted cash flow would say it was a cut, even if was remedied).

And don't call me a democrat again.

[expatpat]

For you, too, Gramps.

[Grampa Dave]

You nailed this headline with this reply:

To: Grampa Dave

The headlines here are scare headlines to scare senior citizens into not voting for GW. Their current payments and mine will not be cut regardless of what anyone says.
Yes, you can smell the Rats a mile away.

The stench is intolerable.

[Cold Heat]

Ever heard of anchor babies?

Those are legal.

Fraud is fraud, and is being done by citizens as well. That is another matter, as is what States do with their Medicaid.

I just pointed out a commonly repeated statement that has no basis in reality.

just like the one that says "Illegals vote and screw up the elections")

So do dead people and white trash that gets paid for every vote they cast. Fraud is fraud.

It is the State that is responsible for fixing the Fraud in voting and in Medicaid.

They have not been very good at enforcement. Not good at all.

[Grampa Dave]

How old are you? :)

[Muleteam1]

>>If that were to actually happen, it would be because there is no government, nor a U.S.A anymore.<<

Sorry but cuts, even the demise of, government social programs is not a misconception on the part of younger Americans. The government has demonstrated over and over again that it can replace, restructure, or phase out certain programs. The new or phased-down programs may, or may not, be as beneficial to the recipients. The pyramid styling of SS is certainly a program which demands scrutiny and much scepticism as to its continued viability.

Muleteam1

[expatpat]

Look, I have no problem with changing SS, especially if it allows people to invest their money themselves instead of giving it to the govt. However, to pretend that the cut was not a cut is as bad as pretending a slowing of growth is a cut.

[Cold Heat]

The pyramid styling of SS is certainly a program which demands scrutiny and much scepticism as to its continued viability.

The original setup was a PAYGO type accounting.

Over the years the democrats subverted this and added benefits that were never intended. They also increased the amounts of the tax to save the system and then spent the money on other things. That is what happened.

Also, the fact that medicine has improved so much and the lifespans of nonworking years have increased to the point of negating the original intentions.

All this in no way kills the system, but as Greenspan has pointed out, these things MUST be addressed by congress NOW and not later.

Governments lack of ability to invest or save money is the real problem. They cannot bank it.

[oceanview]

we are already "cutting" SS, the inflation numbers that come from the government are understated, which reduces the COLAs.

[ZULU]

Bush should have the CIA kidnap Greenspan, gag him, tie him up, and lock him in a closet somewhere in Iraq until after November 4th.

This "Republican" manufactured a recession during his father's last year of office, assuring Bush I's defeat,

Greenspan is a nutcase.

[RetiredArmy]

Greenspan opens his mouth and the market will probably take a plung. Should just keep his democratic pie hole shut.

[Brownie74]

Yeah, the anchor babies are born U. S. citizens but that does not make the mother or father (whom are usually not married) U. S. citizens. But yet the government feels the need to care for these people while taking from us.

I can't even get near a VA Hospital anymore because of government cutbacks. But go to any hospital emergency room on any given day and it will be packed with illegal aliens. They have to go there because they do not have private physicians so they use the emergency rooms and ER doctors as their primary physicians.

The people that are paying for this fiasco is the same people Greenspan is suggesting cutting benefits to.

End of story!!

[Cold Heat]

the government are understated,

understated from what?

The COLA formula was broken and they are fixing it little by little.

The Numbers now, do seem to track better with the actual cost of living. This would not be understatement if that is the case, and it appears to be for most, except the people who want to make it a election issue and say the repubs are Killing SS and starving old people or pushing them off cliffs in wheel chairs.

[GailA]

By raising the age they are trying to cheat you out of what you paid in. Men don't live as long as women. And a surviving wife only get a small portion of what her husband paid in.

I don't have enough quarters to draw on what I paid in. So the feds will keep what I paid in. As drawing on my husband's SS would net me more per month.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Grumpy seniors will get mad, but also boomers, if they feel that they have been paying into the system for 30 plus years and they are going to get a rate cut. This could be political dynomite.

The people just keep getting screwed by the DC elite......

[Grampa Dave]

Greenspan's babbling about the potential of inflation hit the Dow rather hard.

Hopefully he has left and isn't babbling any more.

[Cold Heat]

Greenspan has stated all along that the SS system, as it is now, will not be sufficient for FUTURE RETIREMENTS.

The current retirement crop will be ok, but the future must be looked at and people paying into the system now need to support changes that would be good for them in the future.

Like private investment of SS taxes not coming out of your check.

The future belongs to you.

You must take those reigns in your hands and do what is right for your generation and those that follow.

I think that people going into the system now and people on it now, understand this. Their benefit growth will have to stop and slow way down as you revamp for your needs that your children will be paying for.

This all sounds good, I know, but it is the reality.

[swarthyguy]

Politically speaking, tres, tres stooopid.

Singlehandedly, Greenspun has given the Democrats a huge issue to hang on Bush's neck, bigger than the fay marriage issue that Bush plans to hang around Kerry's neck.

How do you think this is playing in Florida? People won't blame Andrea's hubbie but with the right encouragement, be played by fear of the usual Repub bugaboos by the Dems and will ask Bush to explicitly deny this.

Explosive to even mention this in an election year, but shows which way the wind is blowing.