Posted on 02/24/2023 2:36:49 PM PST by nickcarraway
How does the 20% reduction in promised benefits fit into the analyses of whether to take the benefits as soon as possible (age 62) rather than wait until 65, etc? The reason most people (myself included) elect to take the money and run rather than wait is the uncertainty of what will be left when the time comes. Let’s face it folks you never know with government programs.
There is a solution that would maintain Social Security and Medicare payments in perpetuity regardless of the number of entitled beneficiaries. Congress should change the trust fund law and completely eliminate it.
The trust fund was set up by FDR as a ploy to get Congress to approve SS. The whole board scheme envisioned that a group of smart people in 1935 could project what the beneficiary needs of the program would be 75 years into the future. This was a joke at the time and is even more of a joke now.
People can contribute whatever is required to FICA to reinforce their sense of entitlement and the starting age can be adjusted to reflect modern actuarial projections, but an entitlement is an entitlement. If the beneficiary expenditures exceed the FICA receipts, the promise must still be kept.
Fortunately, if the government is running out of money, it can legally print as much as it needs by adding to the reserves of the member banks who hold the Treasury department’s accounts. It’s not “borrowed” money because the government made it. They can make as much as they need to meet budget appropriations.
The bank in Monopoly can never go bankrupt or run out of money and neither can the Federal Reserve. That’s just how it works.
are they still milking it???
Krugman never gives up being so so wrong about pretty much everything.
Let’s take the money we’re throwing down the Ukraine rat hole and use it to prop up Social Security. Or take all the money spent on queer studies and donate that to the Social Security fund... There really are solutions.
That started with LBJ and has contiued every since. It was during the Vietnam war and the slogan was "Guns and Butter." What that really meant we will fund the war by raiding the social security trust fund and hand out largess to the public at the same time. They stole the money. It should be noted both Democrats and Republicans were in this together!
“Paul Krugman Says Social Security Is Sustainable. It’s Really Not.”
Actually he’s right. The law requires SS to take a haircut if revenues don’t meet the promises to their welfare recipients. So if revenue comes up 25% short, and the (non-existent) ‘trust fund’ is depleted, then their welfare recipients get 25% less than promised. It’s a bummer, but that’s what happens when Congress refuses to pay for their spending, IN REAL TIME, but instead pushes it down the road.
I would think the first and most logical step would be to identify all the folks that are getting checks, that shouldn’t be getting checks, mostly in the form of SSI.
How many illegals, family members of illegals-Birthright citizens- refugees-etc are getting a check because they hired one of those disability lawyers, who convinced a liberal hack judge that they deserve a check?
Paul Krugman, former Enron consultant, says Enron is is sustainable.
If Krugman told me the sun rises in the East I would have my doubts….
That’s if we do nothing. The cap raised to 250K adds another 20 years to the program. And who loves hearing “oh I get a raise next week because no more social security taxes in may?
Has anyone else noticed that Biden has purchased tons of radio advertising time to encourage people to sign up for Social Security Disability (SSI)?
Wrong S.S. is sustainable, it’s Medicare and Medicaid that aren’t.
you could fix social security (or at least some of the problem) by going through the “disabled” and making sure they really are and are citizens.
Social security is theft from current generations to pay for past generations who did not prepare.
Previous SS money was stolen by congress by the way. That is why current funds pay for retirees.
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.