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Santorum: Trim Social Security now even if painful
Associated Press ^ | Jan 6, 2012 6:35 PM (ET) | CHARLES BABINGTON

Posted on 01/06/2012 6:38:10 PM PST by DJ MacWoW

KEENE, N.H. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum called Friday for immediate cuts to Social Security benefits, risking the wrath of older voters and countless others who balk at changes to the entitlement program.

"We can't wait 10 years," even though "everybody wants to," Santorum told a crowd while campaigning in New Hampshire and looking to set himself apart from his Republican rivals four days before the New Hampshire primary.

Most of his opponents have advocated phasing in a reduction and say immediate cuts would be too big a shock to current and soon-to-be retirees.

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: greed; planners; police; santorum; socialism; socialsecurity; teachers
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To: dirtboy
Explain to me how it's an "entitlement" when people were forced to pay into it and it was THEIR money?

And I believe that YOU missed the point. Social Security was meant for retirees only. NOT for illegals and 20 somethings.

Btw, our parents and grandparents were fooled into believing that there was a "trust fund" that their money went into. Johnson changed that. A Dem of course.

Research Note #20: The Social Security Trust Funds and the Federal Budget

441 posted on 01/07/2012 8:54:07 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
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To: KantianBurke

Part of that is Johnsons fault as he added SS funds to the general budget. Why hurt seniors for being forced to pay into a system that the government mishandled? People paid into it. So you want to just tell them.....what?


442 posted on 01/07/2012 8:56:21 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
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To: DJ MacWoW
Explain to me how it's an "entitlement" when people were forced to pay into it and it was THEIR money?

Because the system was altered so that the amount paid out was far more than what had been paid in by those currently getting Social Security. What I have paid in did not go into a 401K-type account, it went to those getting payments. And seniors are now the wealthiest segment of the population. It makes no sense to take large sums of tax dollars from working-age citizens to subsidize seniors on the current scale being done.

And I believe that YOU missed the point. Social Security was meant for retirees only. NOT for illegals and 20 somethings.

Well, get rid of those freeloaders. But you also can't pretend that nibbling around the edges will fix the larger entitlement issue.

443 posted on 01/07/2012 8:58:54 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: American Constitutionalist
The hypocrisy is thick and rich on this thread..

It's so thick you need a knife to cut through it.

444 posted on 01/07/2012 9:00:01 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: DJ MacWoW

“Explain to me how it’s an “entitlement” when people were forced to pay into it and it was THEIR money?”

“Their” money was spent long ago on the previous retirees. The SS checks the old folks are receiving now come from the pay checks of the young. So your question is irrelevant. Its akin to screaming at Bernie Madeoff for your money back. As to what those dependent on SS should do if benefits are reduced, that’s a question which should be asked and will be best answered AT THE LOCAL LEVEL!


445 posted on 01/07/2012 9:00:48 AM PST by KantianBurke (Where was the Tea Party when Dubya was spending like a drunken sailor?)
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To: dirtboy
Because the system was altered so that the amount paid out was far more than what had been paid in

What was paid in also went up.

Social Security Lies

So you are suggesting that we should tell seniors that they were lied to and robbed. Too bad, so sad?

And seniors are now the wealthiest segment of the population.

Maybe in your neighborhood.

446 posted on 01/07/2012 9:03:46 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
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To: dirtboy
But you also can't pretend that nibbling around the edges will fix the larger entitlement issue.

I guess that you haven't read my posts. Or you only picked out what you could argue with.

447 posted on 01/07/2012 9:05:53 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
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To: KantianBurke
“Their” money was spent long ago on the previous retirees.

And that means what? That you can cheat them? Not honor what they were forced to do?

As to what those dependent on SS should do if benefits are reduced, that’s a question which should be asked and will be best answered AT THE LOCAL LEVEL!

It wasn't the LOCAL LEVEL that took their money every week.

448 posted on 01/07/2012 9:08:45 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
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To: DJ MacWoW

I have read your posts. But you are also pretending that those currently receiving benefits paid in anything close to an amount to rationalize their current receipts on an actuarial basis. That is not the case, which makes Social Security an entitlement.


449 posted on 01/07/2012 9:12:20 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: DJ MacWoW

If you put your faith in government you’re going to be disappointed. The issue here is that by insisting that SS operate without any alterations, you are going to condemn this country to an economic catastrophe. Are you willing to see that happen just so that your checks aren’t touched? Those of us who love this nation don’t. How about you?


450 posted on 01/07/2012 9:14:22 AM PST by KantianBurke (Where was the Tea Party when Dubya was spending like a drunken sailor?)
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To: DJ MacWoW

I would say leave Social Security alone and get people off SSI that have never worked a day in their lives but have a gimpy leg a crooked finger a bad eye bad nerves hell it is easier to get SSI disability than it is SS!


451 posted on 01/07/2012 9:14:45 AM PST by Lees Swrd ("Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world as well")
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To: dirtboy
You certainly haven't read the links.

That's fine. You tell Granny she can't eat or have heat because the government lied to her.

452 posted on 01/07/2012 9:16:49 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
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To: DJ MacWoW

Your link undermines your own argument. And it is a statistical fact that on the average, seniors are the wealthiest segment of the population. Does that mean there are no poor seniors? Of course not. However, that also means that we should not continue paying current benefits out across the board to seniors as an entitlement. They are getting more than they paid in, and the current structure is a generational wealth transfer.


453 posted on 01/07/2012 9:16:54 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: TigersEye
So, you have a solution to how seniors with no family will make it if their SS is cut below subsistence levels? Great! Let’s hear it.

Point out in the source article where Santorum said anything like that.

454 posted on 01/07/2012 9:18:05 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: DJ MacWoW

Gawd, you sound just like a Democrat, they used that exact kind of imagery when Bush proposed sensible Social Security changes. So any further discussion with you is pointless. Later.


455 posted on 01/07/2012 9:19:18 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: KantianBurke
If you put your faith in government you’re going to be disappointed.

It wasn't me the government lied to. And I've never looked to them to solve my problems. EVER. They ARE the problem.

The issue here is that by insisting that SS operate without any alterations,

I never said that. Another one that never really reads posts or links.

You have a nice day.

456 posted on 01/07/2012 9:19:49 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
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To: dirtboy
It's a shame that you don't like the truth. You can't pull the rug out from under an 80 year old. Well.................maybe you can.

And again, you have ignored my posts about changing the system. All you want is a fight.

Later indeed!

457 posted on 01/07/2012 9:22:48 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
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To: DJ MacWoW
He's right, in so far as he goes.

But Social(ist) (in)Security does not need to be "trimmed".

It needs to be abolished outright.

Pay off the people who paid into it ... cut the rest of us free ... END the Marxist/Leninist nightmare.

Anyone who thinks SS is not a problem is NOT a conservative.

Social Security is pure communism.

458 posted on 01/07/2012 9:24:48 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: Lees Swrd

Social Security needs changes. But our nation can’t pull the rug out from under seniors to do it. Government lied and cheated. That’s not the old folks fault.


459 posted on 01/07/2012 9:25:16 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
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To: KantianBurke
An excerpt from this article puts a lot of this in perspective:
The very first Social Security check went to Ida May Fuller in 1940. She paid just $24.75 in Social Security taxes but collected a total of $22,888.92 in benefits, getting back all she put into Social Security in a month.

According to a Congressional Research Service report titled "Social Security Reform" (October 2002), by Geoffrey Kollmann and Dawn Nuschler:
- workers who retired in 1980 at age 65 got back all they put into Social Security, plus interest, in 2.8 years.
- Workers who retired at age 65 in 2002 will have to wait a total of 16.9 years to break even.
- For those retiring in 2020, it will take 20.9 years.
- Workers entering the labor force today won't live long enough to get back even half of what they will put into Social Security.

Social Security faces Ponzi's problem, not enough new "investors." In 1940, there were 160 workers paying into Social Security per retiree; today there are only 2.9 and falling.

Williams was subbing for Rush on the Friday before New Years and was explaining a lot of this. The root of the problem is that no matter what LIES were told at the onset and continue to be told, it was an inherently flawed system to begin with (calling it a Ponzi scheme is objectively accurate); never mind the fact it is completely extraconstitutional and would have been struck down immediately had the SCOTUS at that time not been compromised.

460 posted on 01/07/2012 9:26:21 AM PST by zzeeman ("We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality.")
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