Posted on 06/11/2018 8:09:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Social Security is like the classic children's tale, "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." So many warnings have been made, no one listens anymore. Well guess what? The wolf's now at the door. Are you listening now?
For the first time in 36 years, Social Security will take money out of its "trust fund" — an accounting fiction that would get you jailed for fraud in the private sector — to pay retirees. The truth is, Social Security is for all intents and purposes bankrupt.
Since 2010, Social Security has been spending more than it took in, making up the difference by tapping into the interest paid on a $2.9 trillion government bond fund. That "interest" is really your tax dollars. Congress, you see, spent the actual money that came in through your payroll taxes and left IOUs. Now, even the interest on those entitlement IOUs is no longer enough. So they're going to have to start selling off assets to pay what they owe. Last year, it was $41 billion. It will only grow.
By 2034, the entire pile of IOUs will disappear. Everything. It will require slashing benefits by at least 21%, or raising payroll taxes by 31%. That's for workers who are today 50 years of age. It is a devastating fiscal picture, one that has profound meaning for our society going forward.
As Cato Institute economist Michael D. Tanner estimated in 2015, Social Security faces a long-term funding shortfall of $25 trillion and Medicare of $48 trillion. Yes, that's trillion with a "t." No doubt, it's far bigger today. To do nothing is tantamount to an irresponsible declaration of national bankruptcy over entitlements.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
I would say not much. There are permanant residents who collect but only to the degree that they contributed.
Most illegals use a fake SS # or someone else’s or work for cash.
I know Americans who didn’t contribute to SS and they do not receive any. Because I’m getting ready to apply for medicare I saw that you can get it if you didn’t pay in but the costs are much more.
And Bernie and the dems want to give EVERYONE Medicare?
Keynes would never have supported the crap the r’s and d’s do. Keynes actually supported surpluses in times of good and not too much debt. We don’t have that. We only have debt. Debt spending all of the time. R’s think that we can grow out of this debt with only cutting taxes and without cutting .gov. D’s think that we can grow out of the debt with more taxes.
“There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution empowering the Federal Government to perpetrate this fraud.”
There is no one thing, but there are two.
The revenue side:
“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”
Amendment XVI
The payout side:
“The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States”
Article IV, Property Clause
Amendment XVI [the power to extract money] and Article IV [the power to spend money] together give Congress the power to run welfare systems.
RE: Do you not remember that George W. Bush and Republicans floated this almost exactly? And what was the Democrat’s response, with the high-pitched squeal of the corrupt MSM?
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Yes, and I heartily approved of it then. Too bad, Dubya got distracted by the Iraq and Afghanistan war and finally by the mortgage crisis that weakened his bully pulpit. He had a good proposal but was not able to do anything.
This was his proposal _-— The accounts would be modeled on the Thrift Savings Plan — a 401-k type program that is already available to government employees — and centrally administered by the government.
Workers would have a choice of five broadly diversified index funds and a lifecycle fund, in which the portfolio grows more conservative as the investor nears retirement.
“We will make sure there are good options to protect your investments from sudden market swings on the eve of your retirement,” the president said in his SOTU speech.
Specifically, when a worker turns 47 the account will automatically be invested in the lifecycle fund unless the worker and his or her spouse sign a waiver opting out.
In terms of fees, the Social Security Administration estimates the administrative cost per account will be 0.3 percentage points.
Money in the accounts could not be taken out or borrowed before retirement. At retirement, it’s likely workers would have to annuitize a portion and only take out a lump sum if doing so would not result in the worker moving below the poverty line. Any unused portion of the account could be left to heirs.
I don’t see how the plan would not work now. After all, if it is good for Federal government workers, why not for everyone else?
RE: And Bernie and the dems want to give EVERYONE Medicare?
The man has no concept of cost and paying the piper at all.
The sad thing is this -— HE IS BEING TAKEN SERIOUSLY BY A SIGNIFICANT PERCENTAGE OF THE AMERICAN ELECTORATE !!
If Hillary had not rigged the primaries, he could have been the Democrat’s nominee in 2016 !!
In Britain, buy-to-lets have become popular.
Property prices have soared in Britain since 1997.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-1596759/Ten-tips-buy-let.html
The comments are worth a read.
Remove all people being payed SS for disabilities and all supplemental income for surviving minors who have a deceased parent.
Remove all noncitizens.
State SDI insurance covers disabilities and you pay for that with payroll taxes already.
On the second count, I personally know a guy that had two minors and got a pretty substantial payment for each because his wife died. He elected not to work and kept himself, his kids and a dog in a 22 foot travel trailer. The kids learned to swoop down on anybody that would feed them.
Check that SDI deduction on your paystub. You have been forced to pay that too independently of SS.
Coming up on 55. Will collect at 62. I will get what’s mine or people will pay. I know I’m not alone. Did anyone predict that the end of this country would be at the hand of the elderly. Maybe not the end, but the end of whatever they call this now, a free for all. I’ve worked and paid in for 40 years...I’m going to get what I’m owed, or I’ll take my pound of flesh.
Not a word on this during bammy’s term. Suddenly it’s a problem?
Drop the fakers from SSI.
Eliminate the “crazy checks” sent to people who see the USA as a great big cash cow.
Stop putting non-citizens on it.
Problem solved.
I suppose I could write Shakespeare with the Consitution if I just pick and choose words at random. Your two excerpts don’t even remotely add up to Social Security, even if they were placed directly together in writing.
I could use what you strung together to create income tax-funded death-camps, according to your logic.
Fortunately, there are limitations in the Constitution on the Federal Government over what it can do with its powers, at least supposedly.
2. For those 45 to 62, same small check, PLUS lifetime zero federal taxes owed to soften the blow since they may be soon retiring.
3. For those over 62, try to maintain as much of current payments as possible (since they may have no other options).
Seize the American-developed, Middle-East oilfields that were nationalized by those sand pirates.
At the very least, seize the Kuwaiti oilfields from those miserable ingrates.
It's time to start keeping conquered land.
“I don’t see how the plan would not work now. After all, if it is good for Federal government workers, why not for everyone else?”
The problem is finding enough assets of good quality at a good price in every year.
Ten million people can retire well by investing in the stock market, 300 million people can’t, there’s just not enough quality assets available at a reasonable price.
Social Security has two problems:
1. a low asset return rate
2. a redistribution scheme than shortchanges better paid workers
I can tell you problem 2 will be hard to fix in modern America.
As for problem 1, it has quite a bit to do with the desire to lower interest rates when a government is $21 trillion in debt. And I’m sure the Treasury doesn’t see low interest rates as a problem.
Your retirement income will suffer, but you benefited as a younger taxpayer by the federal government getting to borrow your future retirement money really cheap.
Abolish Social Security. Find a way.
We could be well off in our retirement but for the gov’t stealing our money
See what could have been.
How Three Texas Counties Created Personal Social Security Accounts and Prospered
https://www.forbes.com/sites/merrillmatthews/2011/05/12/how-three-texas-counties-created-personal-social-security-accounts-and-prospered/#3ab76d6c3283
How Privatized Social Security Works in Galveston
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/us/how-privatized-social-security-works-in-galveston.html
Excerpt from 1st article:
And those who retire under the Galveston model do much better than Social Security. For example:
A lower-middle income worker making about $26,000 at retirement would get about $1,007 a month under Social Security, but $1,826 under the Alternate Plan, according to First Financial’s calculations.
A middle-income worker making $51,200 would get about $1,540 monthly from Social Security, but $3,600 from the banking model.
And a high-income worker who maxed out on his Social Security contribution every year would receive about $2,500 a month from Social Security vs. $5,000 to $6,000 a month from the Alternate Plan.
Obama beat you to that one. Last COLA strangely enough was the same as the increase in Medicare Cost. Checks did not change period.
“pick and choose words”
It’s not done at random, but via skilled leftist lawyers.
“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes”
Amendment XVI
Your hard-earned income -> property of the United States
“The Congress shall have power to dispose of the..property belonging to the United States”
Article IV, Property Clause
Congress has the power to take every dollar you earn and throw them all into a Waste Management truck, or into welfare recipients’ bank accounts.
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