Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The new debate about Social Security
LifeHealthPro.com ^ | 15 April 2015 | Brenton Smith

Posted on 05/28/2015 4:52:18 AM PDT by Eric Pode of Croydon

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041 next last
To: Alberta's Child

Soylent Green meets Logans Run.


21 posted on 05/28/2015 5:48:56 AM PDT by Noumenon (Resistance. Rinestoration. Retribution.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Eric Pode of Croydon

It’s not the same money. It would be new money coming in from new taxpayers after taxes are cut and welfare/poverty programs abolished.


22 posted on 05/28/2015 6:05:46 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Noumenon

No one in Washington is interested in “fixing” Social Security because most solutions would no longer allow Congress to dip into the money. Here’s Thad McCotter’s plan. Read it and tell me why it went nowhere and why, shortly after it was introduced, McCotter got set up and run out of office.http://spectator.org/articles/36775/mccotter-trailblazes-social-security-prosperity


23 posted on 05/28/2015 6:09:40 AM PDT by cumbo78
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: ought-six

I too am disgusted by these deadbeats. There are now so many of them it’s impossible to ignore them or give them the benefit of the doubt. Most older Americans have health issues that make it difficult for them to work. The interesting thing is; if they had never worked, they wouldn’t be eligible anyway. Not so for the millions of obviously able bodied, carefree dead weight I see every day riding around on ATVs, in nice cars, going on vacations and eating expensive food that me and my daughter and son-in-law, who work every day and overtime, couldn’t begin to afford because we’re taxed to death to support this scum.

I have also noticed a subtle but obvious change in the way medical care is given(or not) to older adults. Hospice is suggested sooner and it dispatches(can’t find a better word) its obvious duties more quickly than they used to as a last resort. This isn’t my imagination since I have been caring for my older family members for some years now.

After seventy-five collective years of hard work, my parents received a bare subsistence from Social Security before they died. Now, I watch young, gleeful, strong young men and women, eating, drinking, procreating and having their offspring cared for and educated with taxpayer’s money without ever working a day in their lives.

And yet, when the gargantuan national debt comes up in debate; the first thing politicians think of cutting is Social Security. Even the illegal aliens who are pouring into this country by the thousands will receive many more dollars worth of benefits than older American citizens who have worked all their lives.

You always get more of what you support. When the productive older generation is finally gone, their work ethic and productivity will die with them and the deadbeat, entitlement minded generations that are left will wonder what happened to the America their parents and grandparents sacrificed to build. That nation didn’t come about by its citizens sitting in government provided housing, eating government provided food and watching a TV that someone else paid for. However, the Socialist States of America are coming into being very nicely with that kind of people at the helm. It will be a fate that is well deserved by the lazy masses that allowed it.


24 posted on 05/28/2015 6:21:52 AM PDT by Aleya2Fairlie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Eric Pode of Croydon

Give me back the money you stole from me, .gov, and we’ll call it square.


25 posted on 05/28/2015 6:27:04 AM PDT by kiryandil (Egging the battleship USS Sarah Palin from their little Progressive rowboats...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Eric Pode of Croydon

The steps to rationalize SS are straightforward and logical.

1) Stop pouring gasoline on the fire. This means to no longer bring in new people into the system of SS-Medicare, which are paired together in the FICA tax. From a given date, all the money that would have gone to the government instead goes to private, tax free retirement-health accounts.

2) Means testing will never fly, because those who are getting SS paid into the system, and they want a square deal. So the way around this is to give them a choice. If they still earn taxable income, offer them tax credits slightly greater than the money they would have gotten from SS and Medicare, *if they want to*.

This means, if they need the money from SS and Medicare, they stay in the system that year. But if they would get more money through tax credits, saving it in the first place (many of the people who would have been means tested), then they can vie for this better deal.

In turn, this would take a lot of pressure off of both SS and Medicare, so their money would only go to the people who needed it. It also slashed the *projected* debt of these systems.

3) The biggest loser in this would be the federal government, that would no longer effectively double the income tax with the lies of Social Security and Medicare, which they then immediately spent. Which means that the federal government would *have* to cut back, perhaps as much as by 25-50%.

What’s not to like?


26 posted on 05/28/2015 6:34:00 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ought-six
There are millions of able-bodied Americans who can work, but have scammed the system to collect disability payments.

Heroin addicts and chronic alcoholics qualify as "disabled" thanks to Congress-critters who see expanding the Ponzi scheme as an excellent way to buy votes. The stipends paid out go toward buying more heroin and liquor, with the government subsidizing their dependency and robbing retirees of the funds they contributed over a lifetime of hard work.

There are also millions of Americans unable to work who truly need disability payments who have filed, been rejected (always happens the first time around), rinse and repeat... This cycle repeats until they can scrape together enough cash to hire a lawyer who specializes in handling Social Security disability cases. More often then not the case is then approved (this happened to my brother and he was not unique by any means).

Regards,
GtG

27 posted on 05/28/2015 6:42:39 AM PDT by Gandalf_The_Gray (I live in my own little world, I like it 'cuz they know me here.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Baldwin77
Tell me about it.

Soc Sec has already run out of a whole generation of other people's money.

And just look at all the "fixes" in this thread.

Like trying to put out the Chicago Fire with a sprayer bottle of water.

Ideas proposed by people who are in denial about what happened to "their money" and what the government "promised" them.

28 posted on 05/28/2015 7:54:33 AM PDT by Eric Pode of Croydon (I wish someone would tell me what "diddy wah diddy" means.....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Eric Pode of Croydon
Money parents gave the State to ‘prepay’ for their kid's college education?

Can be grab that money too? Smacks of ‘entitlement’...

29 posted on 05/28/2015 8:21:53 AM PDT by GOPJ (When Hillary can't 'throw the game' NOT ONE Arab hellhole will pay her for 'speeches'...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ought-six

How many people in Baltimore sitting around ready to ‘protest’ are on ‘disability’?

My guess is MORE than those in Detroit.


30 posted on 05/28/2015 8:23:38 AM PDT by GOPJ (When Hillary can't 'throw the game' NOT ONE Arab hellhole will pay her for 'speeches'...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Eric Pode of Croydon

Taking out ALL the fraud would seem to be the best first move,altho not a full solution. The problem with this comes in when everyone has their own idea of where the fraud is. Politicians & bureaucrats can kick this can down the road no longer.


31 posted on 05/28/2015 8:37:01 AM PDT by oldtech
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: oldtech
By every calculation I've ever seen, the structural deficit (longer lives, lower birthrates) of both Medicare and Social Security exceeds the "fraud deficit" by at least 5:1 or more.

I am not, not, not against getting rid of fraud. But it's delusional to think that doing so will do any more than postpone the inevitable by a few years.

Of course, those who think that that postponement will cover them for the rest of their retired lives are probably fine with the idea.....

32 posted on 05/28/2015 9:33:25 AM PDT by Eric Pode of Croydon (I wish someone would tell me what "diddy wah diddy" means.....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Bookwoman
What they need to do is not give it to people who have not paid in and especially not give it to illegals.

GW fixed it so illegals could get SS after only a few quarters I forget how few but it was ridiculous. Another thing is how do we know that people living abroad are still alive when issuing those direct deposits? Answer is we don't.

During this administration people who were chronically unemployed were deemed to be disabled.

33 posted on 05/28/2015 11:37:31 AM PDT by itsahoot (55 years a republican-Now Independent. Will write in Sarah Palin, no matter who runs. RIH-GOP)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
Means testing will never fly, because those who are getting SS paid into the system, and they want a square deal.

A "square deal" would be - once you've gotten back what you paid it, plus interest at prime over that time period, you're done. The checks stop.

34 posted on 05/31/2015 7:03:12 AM PDT by Eric Pode of Croydon (I wish someone would tell me what "diddy wah diddy" means.....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Eric Pode of Croydon

On the surface, yes. But far too many people counted on the “promise” of the government, either to pay their retirement or to augment their retirement. So just “getting their money back” is a cheat.

Compare it to insurance. Say you take out a life insurance policy for $100k to support your family if you unexpectedly die. Then, after a decade of paying premiums that amount to say $20k, you die. Then the insurance company says they won’t pay the entire $100k they promised, but will give you your premiums back. In effect, your family is cheated out of $80k, but “it’s fair, because you got back the money you paid in.”


35 posted on 05/31/2015 9:06:42 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
So just “getting their money back” is a cheat.

So who gets to cover the rest of what they were "promised"??

36 posted on 05/31/2015 9:44:37 AM PDT by Eric Pode of Croydon (I wish someone would tell me what "diddy wah diddy" means.....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Eric Pode of Croydon

Easy, the government spent their FICA taxes as soon as it got them, instead of saving the money as it should have, so properly speaking, the money *should* come out of the “government’s hide”.

That is, large and illegitimate parts of the federal government were created with that money. By shutting them down, the government will likely have a surplus annual budget. And the trick they used of saying as long as they can pay just what is needed that month and they are still solvent, still applies.

So the promises will be kept.


37 posted on 05/31/2015 11:01:08 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
Before I buy that, you'd need to run the numbers and show me just what fedgov programs (non defense, non debt service) can be cut to come up enough to cover with the $25 trillion Soc Sec actuarial shortfall.

The fact that you start your post with the word "Easy." leads me to suspect that you have not done this.

38 posted on 06/02/2015 4:14:55 AM PDT by Eric Pode of Croydon (I hate terrorism. But I hate tyranny more.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Eric Pode of Croydon

You’re forgetting the dodge congress used for many years, that as long as they pay what is owed to beneficiaries “that month”, as far as they are concerned, the program is solvent, even if it has a $25t *potential* debt.

As scurrilous as this is, it actually works, even at the low level. Your credit rating will be good even if you have a high debt, as long as you pay the interest on that debt on time.

So the way what I propose works is that you stop putting more people into the system, which will then slowly start to lower the potential debt. And you continue with the trick, paying beneficiaries what they are owed *that month*.

This means the cutback to government income comes from not being able to squander the FICA taxes immediately on receipt, as if the income tax was doubled. So yes, it will be an enormous hit to government revenues, but one they weren’t supposed to have in the first place.

The total hit to government revenue might be as much as 25-30% of the current budget, and that should be workable.


39 posted on 06/02/2015 6:08:49 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
You keep the program in place for existing seniors age 60 and older.

Nice try...but if you want parity across generations than every generation needs to take a hit.

40 posted on 06/02/2015 6:44:12 AM PDT by mac_truck (Aide toi et dieu t aidera)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson