Posted on 07/25/2010 4:54:48 PM PDT by combat_boots
There is strong concern that the lame-duck Congress will be used to pass the Catfood Commission’s recommendations to slash America’s social safety net with cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits. The idea of a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress allowing cuts to our great social programs that will result in millions of seniors falling into poverty is a horrifying thought. Fortunately, progressives in the House have the power to stop this if they are willing to play hardball politics.
The Catfood Commission, conveniently, won’t release its recommendations until early December. That’s too late to let voters incorporate it into their judgment before the November election but not too late for a lame-duck Congress to pass it. Clearly the Catfood Commission members hold extreme contempt for the idea of letting us, the unwashed masses of the country, actually get to shape government policy using this thing called democracy.
(Excerpt) Read more at fdlaction.firedoglake.com ...
“The Cat Food Commission is strategic default by the rich”
Tue, 06/15/2010
“Kevin Drum (and how good it is to see an access blogger pointing this out under a Democratic adminstration*):
From a purely fiscal point of view, the Social Security trust fund is a fiction. But while this is true as a bare fact, the implications of this argument are pernicious and need to be vigorously confronted whenever they rear their head in public. Here’s why, in the simplest possible terms.
Back in 1983, we made a deal. The deal was this: for 30 years poor people would overpay their taxes, building up the trust fund and helping lower the taxes of the rich. For the next 30 years, rich people would overpay their taxes, drawing down the trust fund and helping lower the taxes of the poor.”
http://www.correntewire.com/cat_food_commission_strategic_default_rich
“How Can We Stop the Catfood Commission?” One Utah. By Glenn Greenwald. July 23, 2010
http://oneutah.org/2010/07/23/how-can-we-stop-the-catfood-commission/
Erskine Bowles = Soros’ Lt & driver to crash the US with debt & bankruptcy, on cue/orders from Soros, no?
Use the search term “debt commission” you’ll get plenty.
Every dollar in social security tax we pay goes into a special “lockbox” that no one can touch.
Social Security was never intended to provide that type of support you suggest for retirees.
The whole mess has been enabled by liberals to force dependency upon the govt by as many people as possible, definitely not what was originally envisioned.
It was always meant to ensure dependency and to assure the relection of politicians looting one generation for the benefit of another.
My wife works for the SSA. I no longer allow her to talk to me about the regulations that govern the Soc Sec Admin’s payment system to protect my blood pressure.
I don’t even want to start on this subject.....
After paying into the “lockbox” for more than forty years, I’m sure I’ll get back my investment...
What’ll actually happen is retirement age will be raised, along with the tax, and, hopefully, they’ll allow my wife to have dog food to eat after I’m gone.
She’ll not get health care, of course, but she’ll be required to pay for health insurance.
See? Everybody wins! /s
If the Cat Food Commission won’t get the job done, I guess the Death Panel will have to.
I’m not suggesting anything.
Social Security was supposed to be temporary, I know. I heard the tale night after night after night at the dinner table growing up. My folks HATED FDR with a passion, calling him the Great White Father. I mean they HATED FDR. There we all were, bug-eyed kids unable to eat. I remember those rants almost word for word.
I don’t agree with FDL much of the time, but they can be a useful source. They aren’t always in full moonbat mode. Sometimes, they actually point out sensible things!
broken clock, etc. LOL
What is funny is that BOTH sides are worried about what this rotten congress might do with a lame duck session. Maybe that is some sort of oddball progress.
But comrade, there will be no death panel. Those who are, um, in, well, certain ‘categories,’ shall we say, simply won’t be ‘covered’ at all.......
Cash for clunkers. Gold for Granny.
Every dollar in social security tax we pay goes into a special “lockbox” that no one can touch.***
And here is where it goes!
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/ProgData/fundFAQ.html#n4
And here is what the LBJ admin (1964) said about the social security system!
http://www.ssa.gov/history/ssa/usa1964-2.html
Self-Supporting
“The program is designed so that contributions plus interest on the investments of the social security trust funds will be sufficient to meet all of the costs of benefits and administration, now and into the indefinite future—without any subsidy from the general funds of the Government. Both the Congress and the Executive Branch, regardless of political party in power, have scrupulously provided in advance for full financing of all liberalizations in the program.”
Now, you DO trust the government to keep it’s word, don’t you? Sarc/off.
The Ruling Class has been stealing from the Social Security Trust Fund for decades and using the money therein to pay huge salaries with unconscionable retirement benefits to government employees. What needs to be cut are the retirement benefits of government employees at all levels and bring them down to the level of the SS recipients. Then see what that does for the price of cat food.
During the period that LBJ article was written, I worked for the Social Security Administration. We weren’t covered by Social Security. I should have learned something from that...
There is no trust fund, there never was it was a fiction from day one. THE ONLY thing the Treasury can do with the extra money is convert it to special T bills that get placed in a file cabinet, and the money goes into the general fund and gets spent. The trust fund was ALWAYS going to be IOU’s to ourselves.
The thing to do is recognize SS for what it is. Welfare for old people. KIll the program, dump the taxes. Means test the recipients. Got money? No welfare. Broke? You get welfare, again if you don’t have any other assets. Nothing else is going to work in the long run.
2. Raise the number of years you need to qualify for Social Security to 25 from 10.
3. Make the work needed to qualify for Social Security be full time, 40 hours per week for 52 weeks, at at least minimum wage salary to count as a 'year' towards your 25.
4. Prevent people who have been working their entire lives in exempt jobs, like public employees, from working a few short hours for a few short years and getting a full SS check.
5. Get rid of the 'crazy money' provision-- Supplemental Security Income. If you want to help 'challenged' people, call it welfare.
6. Make it a guaranteed prison term if anyone is caught on video doing physical activites who is reciving disability income. Make them pay back all their money back paid to them in disability first. Give the whistleblower 10% of the paid back money.
STOP GIVING CHECKS TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEVER OR ONLY VERY SLIGHTLY PAID INTO THE SYSTEM. Only give checks to people who have paid into SS all their life.
Finally, restrict Medicare to people who have paid into it all their life, not just any yahoo who happens to be here in the United States and turns 65, citizen or no.
Congress took action on this a while back. I have a cousin who worked in private industry for about 10 years before going to work for the feds. There is now some "windfall profits" type provision that affects his Civil Service pension. The amount of social security he earned based on those 10 or so years subtracted from some percentage of his Civil Service check. The result: he gets nada for his years of paying into the system. Not one penny.
Did you for get the /sarcasm tag? No, that's not what happens wiht our social security tax. It is spent, along with every other dollar they get, and then another $1.5 trillion a year that they don't get from anywhere (deficit).
The USA is broke. The Welfare State is bankrupt. Social Security is a walking-dead ponzi scheme. Today's 50 and younger crowd will only get a fraction of what they put in, and then only if they are more-or-less income and assett destitute.
Social Security is well on it's way to be transformed into yet-another Transfer Payment system for the usual suspects.
This was already telegraphed when FedGov started taxing the SSI benefits of people with other income. Eventually they may claim to be paying everyone the money they are owned, but taxing it at 100% for unfavored classes, like people with 401K income or pensions.
Just wait, you'll see.
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.