[achilles2000]

Welfare programs ought to be means tested, and SS, Medicare, and Medicare are just welfare. The article makes that plain. The only issue is “perception”. The reality is that it is welfare.

[updatedscreenname]

For SS,I would settle for a plan that allows one to get back what they paid in, then switches to a means test.

[Huck]

One thing we could do is try to eliminate the separate withholding. Just roll it into the income tax. The idea that the money is set aside is a lie. It’s just taxation. Get rid of the separate nature of it, and it’ll be easier to shrink the program out of existence.

[REPANDPROUDOFIT]

You call Social Security and Medicare "welfare programs".

It bothers me when those analogies are made and there is no mention of the fact that both programs require the recipient to pay into them. SS is paid for during years of active employment. Medicare is paid for during both active employment and during retirement (premiums are withheld from SS checks).

"Welfare programs" (Welfare, food stamps, Medicaid) do not receive a penny from the recipients.

[I cannot think of a name]

“Welfare programs ought to be means tested, and SS, Medicare, and Medicare are just welfare.”

Somewhat true but grossly misleading. Since the 1996 “welfare reform” SS and Medicare have become loaded with expenses that are actually just hidden welfare costs. A distinction between the money paid out by SS and Medicare to people that have paid into the system, and the money paid out by SS and Medicare to people that have never put a dime into the system, would bring things into focus.

But don’t hold your breath to ever see those numbers!

[Babba Gi]

Let’s just call it what it is, Welfare. I don’t know any retirement plan where higher premiums don’t get you higher benefits. I have yet to find a a retirement plan that pays a pension to someone who hasn’t contributed a dime. I had my forty quarters in at age 32. I was free from the bondage of FICA for two years. Then they needed more money and I was back in. I’ve now worked another 29 years for somebody else; thank you Ronald Reagan.

[cpdiii]

If the government would return the money taken from me and my employers for the last 44 years plus the nominal interest rate of treasury certificates I would gladly for
go Social Security and Medicare. I have always paid the max each year. It is a ton of money.

That number would be around 1 million dollars in todays money.

[chesley]

But. It wasn’t sold that way to the American people.

The SC may not recognize a legal obligation, but there is a a moral one for the government to stand by its promises.

I suggest that no elected, or appointed, federal official, including the judiciary, be paid until the problem is fixed. there might be a little problem constitutionally with the judges, but after all, it’s a living constitution. We can fix it.