Posted on 03/29/2010 4:15:30 PM PDT by Kaslin
Entitlements: Social Security's chief actuary reports that the social safety net will run a deficit for 2010, nine years earlier than predicted. Put down that big gavel, Madam Speaker, we're about to hit the iceberg.
No sooner had House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, carrying the gavel used when Medicare was enacted, taken a victory lap around the Capitol Building after passage of the health care bill than did the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration report that his part of the social safety net had a big hole in it and would run a deficit for all of 2010.
Stephen C. Goss said that payments rose "unexpectedly" during the economic downturn as jobs disappeared and people feeling no hope and seeing little change opted to apply for benefits sooner than planned. Revenues also shrank due to fewer paychecks to tax.
Failure of the stimulus to keep unemployment under 8%, as the administration promised, has taken its toll on the entitlement. According to Goss, the administration expected a quicker, stronger recovery from the financial crisis. Officials foresaw an average unemployment rate of 8.2% in 2009 and 8.8% this year, though unemployment is hovering near 10%.
The 2010 shortfall is expected to be $29 billion, but it's still early. It could get bigger as the economy collapses under the weight of increased debt and deficits spurred on by the new taxes and economic disincentives of newly passed ObamaCare. Then, looming ahead, is the angel of economic death known as cap-and-trade.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Get ready for means testing!
I have been forced to pay into this scam for almost 40 years now and will probably never collect a cent of it in return.
That's why my plan for retirement was completed totally independent of any calculation on Social Security.
It really is all unsustainable. At some point something will have to give.
Yeah, mine too. Which is why we’ll both get screwed.
Yep, what I’ve been saying. And they could print more money, but they’re shying away from that this time. Why? Because there’s not enough manufacturing to tax for it, this time. The money wouldn’t only be inflated. It would be truly worthless. And government employees won’t benefit from worthless money any more than the rest of us.
And the communist takeover that so many of us are harping about? It can’t happen without heavy manufacturing. What are they going to take over—our factories in China?
Means testing & higher retirement age coming soon. The producer class will lose its benefits. The consumer class will have cradle to grave income courtesy of Uncle Sam’s redistribution of wealth. After all, it is “fair”.
How about telling the truth that DC spent the money and now can not repay it due to lack of new money coming in.
I think the 401k that people save in to supplement their SS income will be the reason they don’t receive any SS. I have a small 401k, only enough to take advantage of the company match. All other savings has been cash. Which comes in handy now that I have been layed off for 15 months.
Of course, those who have not earned any benefits will still get everything they want as entitlements.
My husband and I paid into the program for a combined 60 years and we just started collecting. We don’t have much of a choice about depending on social security. What were these idiots thinking when they declined to address the problem of social security when Bush was President? This absolutely makes me sick.
Agreed. I’m a Baby Boomer, and I say, “Cut ‘em off!” Simply shut down Social Security and all of that. You’ll have that chance after the big default. Just make sure that you abolish the anti-competition zoning laws against small manufacturing operations, so that rebuilding will be possible.
Kick the can down the road aways. Since it would be politically unpopular to fix, they try to make someone else fix it.
When all you are about is getting elected, you have no interest in the tough decisions or following a moral code if it costs you votes.


The insanity begins to collapse on itself.
Everything that happens while the dems are in control is “unexpectedly”.
My advice to you is cash in that 401K before the marxists get it, too.
>Im a Baby Boomer, and I say, Cut em off!
Ah, a sane one!
>Simply shut down Social Security and all of that.
Not only that, replace the progressive income tax with an across-the-board individual income tax (the IRS could then be disbanded and/or folded into the FBI). (No corporate tax.) Disband the Dept of Education, Dept of Energy, Dept of Labor, Dept of Transportation (actually DOT could be re-chartered to EXCLUSIVELY enforce the interstate commerce regulation clause; depriving Congress of that rationale). Start going through the [Federal] lawbooks and throw out EVERYTHING that isn’t specifically authorized by the constitution. Make it legal for duels in Federally controlled districts/’properties.’ (This will solve the “term-limit problem”... if the Constituents are determined enough.)
As you can see, I have no hope of ever being elected.
>Youll have that chance after the big default.
We shall see.
Some numbers for you guys...
Life to date I’ve paid in $230,095 and by the time of retirement in 2021 will have paid in more than $365,000...
At 5% earnings compounded I would have a fund worth just under $1,000,000 that could pay me a benefit of $60,000 per year to age 95 (not that I’m going to live that long and which is a lot less than the benefit that would actually be paid) with over $200,000 remaining in the fund at death...
At 8% earnings compounded it is obscene how much cash there would be...
If that’s not theft I don’t know what is...
By the way...I don’t expect to (nor am I planning on) get a dime out of it...
“has taken its toll on the entitlement. “
How is this an entitlement when the govt has been stealing from the citizens.
If I had payed in for 30 - 50 years, and was told that it is bankrupt I would be seriously displeased. Workers that payed in should expect payout per govt contract.
If they cannot SSN cannot payout, all other programs should take back seat to SSN.
I say that govt employees (pols) should take pay cut to make up the difference
That's a great point, but what if the plan is for a global economy? At least Lenin had a degree of 'love' for Russia and its people. Obama has none of that for the USA. Obama made a half-hearted attempt at controlling the auto industry, but it fell flat. Now what?
Bernie Madoff wishes he had thought of this scheme. At least he paid off those wise enought to cash out during his scam.
Love the “Buck Ofama” buttons!
The Bush tax cuts expire in 2011.
The additional taxes will do wonders for the economy. No wonder Larry Summers wants to bail.
I took mine on the earliest possible day. Don’t trust it to be there in 3 years.
I haven’t stopped to look at home much I have put in over the years. I suppose that’s on that periodic statement I receive from the SSA?
I knew a person who told me all 11 bothers and sisters were collecting social security disability. The person I knew really deserved it but a brother said to “go mental” because it was impossible to disprove. My friend was sickened by the comment.
At the time all 12 of them were under the age of 45... collecting full benefits for themselves for possibly another 40 to 45 years. In short, that one family will collect more in benefits than over a thousand American workers collecting at full retirement age...
And dems? Liberals? They’re very quiet about this...
What’s the liberal “solution”? To make Americans who play by the rules work longer - to bankrupt the system for honest young people forced to put money into a corrupt system - and to set citizens against those who really are disabled. And to set the young against the old. It’s twisted - evil - sad.
Yes, I hate liberals.
But the democrats said that Bush was just making up all the stuff about social security going broke.
Does that mean they lied??? /s
Money was stolen from workers who paid in. They should be entitled to collect what can be collected from those who stole it, but very little is going to be collectible. I don't really see that they have any stronger moral claim to other taxpayers' money than those tax payers have themselves.
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