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Graham: Reduce benefits for wealthy seniors
Charleston City Paper ^ | 2011-01-02 | Greg Hambrick

Posted on 01/02/2011 10:24:47 AM PST by rabscuttle385

Seniors should be older before the receive Social Security and wealthy Americans should receive less benefits across the board, says Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

He made the argument in an interview on Sunday's Meet the Press, but it's a position Graham has advocated for on the stump in South Carolina, including a 2009 stop at The Citadel with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

"What I'm going to do is challenge this country to make some hard decisions," Graham said at the time, telling the crowd of cadets, Tea Partiers, and Graham supporters that they shouldn't give Congress a pass on the tough stuff.

(Excerpt) Read more at charlestoncitypaper.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: South Carolina
KEYWORDS: 0pansification; 0pansy; 0ponzi; 112th; doasisaynotasido; fascism; greeniguana; lindseygraham; linseedgrahamnesty; mcbama; mccaintruthfile; mclame; mclamesbff; mclameslapdog; mclamespoodle; mcqueeg; medicare; metrosexual; rino; socialinsecurity; socialism; socialist; socialsecurity; southcarolina; spain4just75000day; wagyabeef4only100lb
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To: skeeter

>Why stop with SS? How about we means test those who wish to take advantage of their 401ks and IRA?

>I mean, whats the difference?

>Its coming, folks.

Given that it is impossible to find an investment house that can get away with the accounting practices of the federal government, I’d say your argument is bunk.

I mean, sure some people invested in Berni Madoff, but that’s hardly the norm for 401k’s and IRAs.

Now if you actually believed that the government was holding your Social Security “contributions” in trust, once again I have a bridge to sell you.


201 posted on 01/02/2011 1:38:55 PM PST by drbuzzard (different league)
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To: drbuzzard

“You are spot on. While I don’t much like Graham, he is talking the truth here. It is the middle class entitlements that drain the coffers of the government, and get people dependent on federal ‘aid’. That was the most devious thing about the New Deal. Even Roosevelt knew that welfare was unpopular. When he changed the game and got the middle class dependent on government, he set the stage of this nation going bankrupt.

If you want Social Security to be gone (any rational person should since it is a moronic ponzi scheme), you first need to remove the ties it has to the non poor recipients. Once you ween them off the system, you will finally have enough of a voting coalition to kill it.

As for those who say they deserve it because they paid in, well I’m sorry, but like all other ponzi schemes someone gets left holding the bag. Unless you want the entire economy taken down, which is what we get if we keep waiting to face this unpleasant truth, we have to get on the road to controlling the entitlements and that means Social Security and Medicare.”

OK drbuzz, for all of you that want SS to go away why don’t you put your money where your mouth is an write too the government that you will NOT accept any Social Security benefits from now or into the future.

I paid into this frick’n system for the last 33 years with about 30 of those years at the max limit. I’ll be damned if I am going to set back and just let the government “keep my money”. It was and IS MY money.

All the people including Rushbo pisses me off with these statements. Only people that have sizeable nest-egg already built up can make these comments. Even my financial planner INCLUDES S.S. in what my retirement may look like.

This will be the one where the pitchforks will brought out in this country. There are sooo many bums on S.S., welfare etc. that we who have been honest are expected to bend over and get screwed.


202 posted on 01/02/2011 1:39:38 PM PST by mmanager
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To: skeeter

401k and IRA deposits are actual deposits, privately owned. They are merely tax-deferred.

Social Security has always been a welfare program funded by taxes.


203 posted on 01/02/2011 1:40:18 PM PST by B Knotts (Just another Tenther)
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To: All

For crying out loud...will these Washington dimwits stop with the word wealthy !!!

It is a an easy catchword and there is never a definition. Throw these people out and take away THEIR pensions and medical benefits.


204 posted on 01/02/2011 1:40:35 PM PST by Irish Eyes
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To: cherry
what about people that have been working since age 16?...under your scenario, those 24yrs of paying up to age 40 would have been for nothing....

"Tell me about it."

205 posted on 01/02/2011 1:41:02 PM PST by pnh102 (Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity. - Me)
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To: rabscuttle385

“He made the argument in an interview on Sunday’s Meet the Press”

There are how many U.S. Senators, and how many GOP U.S. Senators??

Yet the media gives RINO Graham more air time than all other GOP Senators combined.

Why? Only one reason - THEY like him; and if the media likes him THAT much, the grassroots of the GOP has reason enough in that fact to dismiss Graham completely.


206 posted on 01/02/2011 1:42:10 PM PST by Wuli
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To: drbuzzard
Now if you actually believed that the government was holding your Social Security “contributions” in trust, once again I have a bridge to sell you.

I never suggested they were and you've beaten that straw horse completely to death.

I'm still waiting for name of that welfare program they ended back in the 90s.

207 posted on 01/02/2011 1:43:27 PM PST by skeeter
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To: Graybeard58

>> You could address that underlined part to everyone on this thread who thinks “means testing” is hunky dory.

There are many Socialist leaning FReepers.

Congress should be required to purchase private insurance.


208 posted on 01/02/2011 1:45:28 PM PST by Gene Eric (Your Hope has been redistributed. Here's your Change.)
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To: drbuzzard
FDR didnt even envision a Ponzi scheme of this scale..he was aided and abetted by hundreds of Congress Critters along the way. Who tried to put a stop to the scheme? Who tried to add to it?If you are in charge of an "Insurance Plan" and allow it to not meet actuarial tables, are you not guilty of fraud aginst those paying into the plan? I realize SS is not an insurance plan but a tax but it needs to end if means tests must be used as it is therefore not viable.

Congress should not spend any more money on anything non-essential especially earmarks until this mess is termineated or made viable.

209 posted on 01/02/2011 1:45:32 PM PST by rolling_stone ( *this makes Watergate look like a kiddie pool*)
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To: gloryblaze
"bemoaning way,way back in the olden days, that SS would be the nation’s ruination"

All conservatives were once opposed to it. I suggest all conservatives still are.

However, most of us can see reality and know that it can't be eliminated overnight.

Still, we can start with an increase in the retirement age, means testing, elimination of SSI/Survivor benefits etc, and freezing benefits for a time for everyone else.

210 posted on 01/02/2011 1:45:59 PM PST by Mariner (USS Tarawa, VQ3, USS Benjamin Stoddert, NAVCAMS WestPac, 7th Fleet, Navcommsta Puget Sound)
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To: mmanager

No one, at this point, is talking about Social Security going away.

We just need to figure out how to remove a couple hundred billion dollars per year out of the program, and the easiest ways to do that are: increase retirement age, and don’t make welfare payments to relatively wealthy people.

Yes, this makes Social Security more explicitly a welfare program, but that’s what it always was, actually.

The alternative to all this, of course, is to significantly increase payroll taxes. There’s no easy answer.

Otherwise, at some point, government bonds are going to be less attractive, and the government will have to pay higher interest, creating even more debt.


211 posted on 01/02/2011 1:46:31 PM PST by B Knotts (Just another Tenther)
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To: B Knotts
401k and IRA deposits are actual deposits, privately owned. They are merely tax-deferred.

How difficult do you think it would be for the government to make the argument that your 401k cost them the time value of those deferred taxes?

Once they are allowed to start down that road it'll be difficult to stop them.

212 posted on 01/02/2011 1:46:45 PM PST by skeeter
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To: mmanager

>OK drbuzz, for all of you that want SS to go away why don’t you put your money where your mouth is an write too the government that you will NOT accept any Social Security benefits from now or into the future.

Sure, sign me up.

>I paid into this frick’n system for the last 33 years with about 30 of those years at the max limit. I’ll be damned if I am going to set back and just let the government “keep my money”. It was and IS MY money.

I only have 20ish years in, but I’d kiss that off since I know it’s a pipe dream anyway.

>All the people including Rushbo pisses me off with these statements. Only people that have sizeable nest-egg already built up can make these comments. Even my financial planner INCLUDES S.S. in what my retirement may look like.

I hope he didn’t invest in Madoff also, because it’s the same quality of investment.

>This will be the one where the pitchforks will brought out in this country. There are sooo many bums on S.S., welfare etc. that we who have been honest are expected to bend over and get screwed.

You might want to look at the actual numbers. The disability payments are a fairly small portion out SS outlays. Welfare is also a comparatively small blip compared to Social Security and Medicare.

But since you expect your money back, explain where it will come from. I mean you must have a solution right? I mean, the money must be somewhere for you to reclaim it right? Oh, wait, Congress already spent everything you sent in and a hell of a lot more. They also made promises on an even greater amount of spending which comes due all too soon.

So I guess you’ll just jump on the hyperinflation bandwagon which is about the only way you’re going to get your Social Security benefits in full.


213 posted on 01/02/2011 1:48:14 PM PST by drbuzzard (different league)
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To: rabscuttle385

So Lindsay, how detailed IS this photo they have with you and the BoyToy??


214 posted on 01/02/2011 1:48:14 PM PST by Yaelle
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To: drbuzzard

Threads like this make me weep for my country. It seems it’s a lost cause when even those on our side refuse to consider even modest repeal of big government.


215 posted on 01/02/2011 1:51:32 PM PST by B Knotts (Just another Tenther)
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To: rabscuttle385
The voters need to make an easy decision and fire you, Lindsey.

What needs to happen is that the social programs and angencies that have been built up to literally pilfer social security need to be cut back. The welfare programs that are built up based on illegitmacy need to be cut back so we do away with welfare Mommas.

All you pols who are so willing to pilfer hard working Americans who have become successful need to be turned out and run out of town on a rail...with a good dose of tar and feathers on hand should they become necessary.

216 posted on 01/02/2011 1:53:46 PM PST by Jeff Head (Liberty is not free. Never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: skeeter

>I never suggested they were and you’ve beaten that straw horse completely to death.

And yet you keep making inane comments about “the right to the money paid in” when any dullard understands that no such money exists anymore and the expectations were a sucker bet.

>I’m still waiting for name of that welfare program they ended back in the 90s.

You are being deliberately obtuse. I explained the situation, and I don’t really happen to care if you liked the answer, because it was just the facts. If you don’t believe that reducing the welfare rolls was an accomplishment, you are simply not worth arguing with. Noone will never get a majority to advocate eliminating the safety net completely (though I admit, I’d advocate it). Doing what you can to reduce it in size and scope while increasing efficiency is about as good as you can do.


217 posted on 01/02/2011 1:54:07 PM PST by drbuzzard (different league)
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To: B Knotts

>Threads like this make me weep for my country. It seems it’s a lost cause when even those on our side refuse to consider even modest repeal of big government.

Indeed. When even the ‘conservatives’ don’t have the least grasp of fiscal reality, you know we’re hosed.

I better start stocking up the ammo and canned goods.


218 posted on 01/02/2011 1:55:36 PM PST by drbuzzard (different league)
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To: mmanager
"It was and IS MY money"

I agree it WAS.

However, once the government took it from you it WAS no longer.

219 posted on 01/02/2011 1:57:38 PM PST by Mariner (USS Tarawa, VQ3, USS Benjamin Stoddert, NAVCAMS WestPac, 7th Fleet, Navcommsta Puget Sound)
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To: B Knotts

...In addition, you are promoting bigger government.
The remedies you suggest, while they might sound nice, do not add up to numbers significant enough to make the programs solvent.....

Well now unless we punish those responsible for this mess and limit future benefits it will continue again and again.

You want to means test SS recipients, how about cutting out this abuse of taxpayers to benefit bankers first:
http://www.youtube.com/user/fiercefreeleancer

the below video contains PROFANE-BAD LANGUAGE WARNING!! if you don’t want to hear it dont click it.

an Irishman’s take

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/irishman-speaks-his-mind


220 posted on 01/02/2011 1:58:38 PM PST by rolling_stone ( *this makes Watergate look like a kiddie pool*)
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