Posted on 09/02/2010 9:49:56 AM PDT by Qbert
President Obama is playing “Watch the Birdie” with Americans over the age of 50, diverting their attention with handouts and scare tactics to hide in plain sight the enormous damage his policies are doing to the retirement safety net.
First it was Medicare. The ObamaCare legislation drops a few free goodies like breadcrumbs in front of Medicare recipients (such as free diagnostics and annual checkups) to draw their attention away from the enormous cuts in Medicare being used to help pay the freight for the new national healthcare system...
[Snip]
Now the president is coming after Social Security.
In his Saturday radio address on August 14, President Obama revealed he is already moving on to cut Social Security.
But again, he is playing "Watch the Birdie," this time using scare tactics rather than sweeteners.
In that address, he denounced the idea of solving Social Security’s problems by allowing young workers the freedom to voluntarily choose to save and invest some of their taxes in their own personal retirement accounts, an option federal employees already enjoy. The president rejects fixing the Bernie-Madoff Ponzi scheme currently used to finance Social Security with some form of personal accounts to begin pre-funding Social Security with real saving and investment. Instead, he rails about “privatization,” an incendiary (and false) characterization of voluntary personal retirement accounts intended to scare the bejeebers out of the American people.
[Snip]
So the question remains: What is the president up to?
[Snip]
Leaks indicate that among the options being considered are delaying the retirement age (sounds like a panacea to bureaucratic pencil pushers who never did a day of hard labor in their lives), changing the basic benefit formula to reduce future benefits, and delaying or slashing COLAs...
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
So what does this do to the culture?
Let’s consider that for a moment....
all of a sudden Grandma or Grandpa can’t afford their elderly single lifestyle, can’t afford that retirement community etc.
So where will they turn...to the current modern family. What happens if they move in with the kids? Some cases will be difficult to endure, but if things are going badly all around, it could be a good thing to restore the idea of family.
What happens if the left loses their free wheeling social culture?
This could really be a very good thing for putting family and God back into the American family.
been, nor Bren. Excuse me.
“this is creating a really entertaining meltdown over on the Libtard side of the blogs.”
Nice!
“Of course. Kill the old folks and there’s more money to give to obama’s friends, the people who vote democrat.”
They don’t call ‘em death panels for nothin’.
Yep.....our government today just keeps looking for more money to spend. They don’t really care about the programs or how they spend the money.
If people are in trouble financially, they take a step back, cut their spending, get back to the basics and then figure out where they have to make changes. This is one aspect of spending money that our government doesn’t care about. Their view today is to take as much money away from the public as they can. Thereby, taking the power of the people away from them. The more money you take away from the people, the more they have to rely on the government. The more they rely on the government, the more power the government has over them.
Support the Fair Tax and cut the government off. Put all government employees on the same tax system, the same health care system, the same Social Security system and you will see changes in these programs. This includes all politicians.
“So what does this do to the culture?
Let’s consider that for a moment....
...So where will they turn...to the current modern family. What happens if they move in with the kids? Some cases will be difficult to endure, but if things are going badly all around, it could be a good thing to restore the idea of family.”
You raise some valid points. But, OTOH, we have near 20% real unemployment (when all factors are considered), and boomers and even younger Americans living off hardship withdrawals to retirement accounts, etc. It’s difficult enough for a lot of people to care of their immediate families, let alone take in more family members (who may require a lot of assistance).
It sure would be nice for the left to lose that “free wheeling social culture”, though...
RE: “Receiving an annuity like payment for money we were FORCED to payout is not socialism. A stupid plan yes. An unconstitutional plan, more than likely.
Giving money to people who did not contribute is socialism.
Before any SS dollars are touched we have to force our government to stop every penny being given to those in this country illegally.
Before any SS dollars are touched we have to force our government to stop every penny being given to foreign countries.
Get our troops out of Germany, Japan, S. Korea and save some more money.
If SS needs to be modified/eliminated, and I think it sure does, it must be done for those entering the labor force not for those who have had money forcibly taken for SS for over 45 years.
If they touch my money, which was to be in a trust fund and is not, they will realize why we have a 2nd Amendment.”
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I agree with your post — and there are at least a few ‘plans’ out there (Republican, can’t remember who I saw on Fox with such a plan) that do make accommodation for continuing Soc. Sec. for those over, say, 55 — but paring it down so that it becomes solvent in the not too distant future. I haven’t heard of any plans to totally eliminate the plan, though.
You are much too kind! What about the compound interest that would have accummulated over forty or fifty years?
RE: “If they want to reign in SS costs - how about booting the 100’s thousands of druggies, alcoholics and BiPolars off - the ones, especially, that are ‘clean’ - but just lay back and continue to not only get the $$$ but FAR better coverage than seniors, who worked all their lives...
and.....
I know far too many 20-30-40 year olds, in perfect health, who just lay back on the dole - have far more ‘discretionary funds’ than most of us...can just self-fill a questionnaire every 7 years - SEVEN - and get a pass for another 7.”
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The excerpts from your post bear repeating because they are so true and so disgusting. All the freeloading recipients need to be culled from the rolls, at the very least. I know a couple of them and they so irritate me I can no longer stand to be in their company.
It seems many of us know a couple of these leeches so imagine what the total number is!!!
RE: “this is creating a really entertaining meltdown over on the Libtard side of the blogs.”
Nice!
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I don’t normally look at any of their junk — can you name a couple of the leftist blogs where heads are exploding? I’d like to take a look. Thx.
I never expected ss to be there when I retired anyway. I’m 53.
“I don’t normally look at any of their junk — can you name a couple of the leftist blogs where heads are exploding? I’d like to take a look. Thx.”
I don’t look at it either...I was relying upon what I was told... (My hunch: if heads are exploding over there, it has more to do with fears about lost votes for the election than about spending cuts).
I hope that if the pubs take over congress that they will bring legislation to the floor cutting the presidents pension in half and make the minimum age to collect it the same as SS.
“Yep.....our government today just keeps looking for more money to spend. They don’t really care about the programs or how they spend the money.”
Exactly.
And the whole Lib point about tax increases has really nothing to do with paying for increases in spending- it’s simply to lock them in for as long as possible, and try to make people “accustomed” to them as the spending continues unabated.
‘President Obama Plans to Cut Social Security Next”
Now the RATS want to cut SS. Why don’t they cut “earmarks” such as bridges to nowhere, mating habits of frogs etc. Why don’t they cut congressional staffs, trips to foreign countries by do nothing congressmen, foreign aid. Funding trips by this phoney Iman who wants to put a mosque at ground zero. How about looking at expense vouchers of politicians ie, 750k for a mayor in CA, and doling out scholarships to friends and relatives by congress members. It’s time that the people re-claim the government and audit all the needless congressional spending and keep SS & medicaire in tact.
Agreed, but I’d sure like to see some of that unconstitutional money I’ve paid in copious amounts (yes I pay the full 14% because I’m independent) go to my parents at least. I know I’ll never see a penny of it.
You could defund every bit of discretionary spending except for Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs in the 2010 budget, eliminate every single agency from Agriculture through HUD and Education and IRS and NASA and on down to Transportation, and you would still have a budget deficit of over $1 trillion.
Any one who honestly thinks that the budget can be balanced without touching Social Security and Medicare is fooling themselves.
It would have to be an amount ten times what I’ve paid in to cover inflation and interest.
I’m totally with you on this. I’m in the same boat (unemployed, no health coverage), and my wife is on SSDI and Medicare. And we can just BARELY make most of our monthly bills. I would say this makes me sick, except I can’t afford to be sick!
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