[justlurking]

I disagree with your premise (all is simply taxes and spending regardless of the what), but your figures are very misleading.

No, the figures are accurate. I've checked them repeatedly and confirmed them via several sources.

Retirees receive benefits from both Social Security and Medicare. When you look at both of these benefits you quickly see that seniors are receiving far more benefits than they ever paid for.

If you want to talk about Medicare, start a separate thread. It's a separate problem.

This discussion is about means-testing Social Security.

[al_again2010]

The reason it is misleading is that there are combined benefits provided to retirees - not just social security. I understand that you would like to start another thread as this is very inconvenient to your arguments.

If the only issue was an imbalance in social security, this would be a very manageable problem to solve and this thread would not exist. The reason there are proposals for means testing soc security is due to the dire nature of deficit spending. Social Security is a big part of the overall problem and it all must be addressed or it will not matter!

[wagglebee]

The reality is that most seniors who are middle class and above are screwed by Social Security.

A person who has paid in (and had matching employer funds) the maximum or close to it for 40+ years would have a much higher income if that money had been invested in a private retirement account like a 401K AND they would still have plenty of it left to leave their heirs.

There's no question that something needs to be done with SS, but denying people money that they've paid in just because someone decides that they don't "need" the money is not the solution.