Posted on 01/01/2011 8:02:36 AM PST by EBH
Governing elites in Washington and Wall Street have devised a fiendishly clever "grand bargain" they want President Obama to embrace in the name of "fiscal responsibility." The government, they argue, having spent billions on bailing out the banks, can recover its costs by looting the Social Security system. They are also targeting Medicare and Medicaid. The pitch sounds preposterous to millions of ordinary working people anxious about their economic security and worried about their retirement years. ...
...To understand the mechanics of this attempted swindle, you have to roll back twenty-five years, to the time the game of bait and switch began, under Ronald Reagan. The Gipper's great legislative victory in 1981--enacting massive tax cuts for corporations and upper-income ranks--launched the era of swollen federal budget deficits. But their economic impact was offset by the huge tax increase that Congress imposed on working people in 1983: the payroll tax rate supporting Social Security--the weekly FICA deduction--was raised substantially, supposedly to create a nest egg for when the baby boom generation reached retirement age. A blue-ribbon commission chaired by Alan Greenspan worked out the terms, then both parties signed on. Since there was no partisan fight, the press portrayed the massive tax increase as a noncontroversial "good government" reform.
Ever since, working Americans have paid higher taxes on their labor wages--12.4 percent, split between employees and employers. As a result, the Social Security system has accumulated a vast surplus--now around $2.5 trillion and growing. This is the money pot the establishment wants to grab, claiming the government can no longer afford to keep the promise it made to workers twenty-five years ago.
Actually, the government has already spent their money.
...Treasury has borrowed the surplus revenue collected by Social Security and spent the money on other purposes--
(Excerpt) Read more at thenation.com ...
Obviously I am not making mayself clear. This problem was recognized THIRTY YEARS AGO.... the SS Taxes were raised to “correct” the problem. HELLO.....when the government claims to solve a problem (like health care) guess what it gets worse.
Don’t claim this BB’er problem is a shock to the system...it was supposed to be prevented. POLITICIANS LIE AND STEAL.
We’ll see if the TPM has made a real difference. The rubber is getting ready to meet the road.
Haven't SS collections simply gone into the general fund since 1968, in order to fund his welfare-state and Viet Nam without presenting a giant deficit? Johnson's last hurrah, if I'm not mistaken. If there's nothing there but IOUs backed by nothing, what's to loot? I'll need to learn a lot more about Social Security if I'm to even believe Greider's premise, let alone his conclusion.
I have not benefited for *any* government spending which I have not already paid for in taxes. What benefit, are you referring to? Please be specific.
If you had something intelligent to say in response to my “dumb” post you would have said it by now.
I thought we were talking about how to address the looming insolvency of Social Security.
I had no idea that what we were really discussing is how tough life has been for you.
You have my sympathy.
But still, Social Security will need to be addressed somehow.
The federal government has racked up a huge amount of debt over the last thirty years. Therefore the government services provided over this time period were not paid for by the taxes collected during the same period. Spending exceeded revenues. This is a matter of simple logic. If your taxes paid for the government you enjoyed then why did the debt increase?
You can’t let any of that money go to the people who actually paid it in.
It must all go to black people. To do otherwise would be racist.
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Just one thing, Boss. SOME of the money was PAID IN by black people. How ya gonna handle that?
They don't deserve any of it either, Skippy.
Only the Section 8 class should be allowed to collect government checks. And only if they have illegitimate children.
No straight people either.
You should have said to begin with that all the money must go to black people but NOT THOSE BLACK PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY PAID IN. As long as you aren’t giving any money back to those who actually paid in then I guess that’s fair enough.
All benefits must definitely go to those who have never hit a lick at a snake, it’s the American way. Since I actually paid into SS and Medicare for more than forty years I should refund everything I have received already and stop any further benefits from coming to me. But then I’m straight so I shouldn’t get any thing anyway. Only gay black people who have never paid a dime into the system should collect benefits. By Jove, I think I’ve got it!
Don't forget the "immigrants."
Legal immigrants need not apply, of course.
Specifically what government benefits did I receive?
You are coming across like a crazy fool.
Everyone reading this thread can name government services that have benefited you.
I will name exactly one category just to make it obvious how stupid and worthless your line of argument is.
The Department of Defense.
What say you now, genius?
Specifically what government benefits did I receive?
The Department of Defense.
Your suggesting the government looted Social Security to pay for military expenditures and defense of this country? Is this what your saying?
Specifically what government benefits did I receive, (Which required the government to loot Social Security?)
The Department of Defense.
One other question slick. Would all that defense spending and borrowing include the defense of our borders and our sovereignty? Or does that count?
They shouldn’t loot the Social Security program, they should just shut it down over a short period of time, maybe something like three years. During that short phase out period, Social Security recipients who are able to demonstrate desperate need should continue to receive some portion of benefits. In order to prevent fraud and abuse, case workers should be assigned to needy recipients to verify need. In three years, the nightmare will be over.
Just what needs to be understood. I have been bellyaching about this even though a SS recipient.I know of a case where the person had a small annuity from a company at retirement years ago. The return has been paying as much as SS. It is the time value of ‘money’ that seems to be a big difference through even times of ups and downs except when government people have their hands on the investment. In the latter case for reasons you point out and etc. your money becomes someonelse’s grab bag. Get SS back to what it was sold as i.e.nobody,man, woman, or child, gets to take out if they have not put in.
Like waking up from a long, happy slumber to find that you only dreamed of the riches you thought you had?
Excuse me? Just who the h*ll do you think you are coming on a thread and making an accusation like that? If you had even bothered to review any posting history you would have held your flippin' fingers off your keyboard. Indeed even reading a tagline or two should have given you pause to slightly consider the people you seek to provoke.
You are not the only American standing in the forum.
I have had a wonderful life of overcoming adversity, facing challenges and being rewarded with a wonderful family; like millions of others - so sympathy is redundant.
The personal details were simply an illustration of how the majority of working people, such as myself, made forced contributions to the SS program for 30 to 50 years; trusting that it would deliver on its premise and promises.
While ON OUR WATCH - we delivered - by working and contributing to the SS fund and paying exorbitant taxes, with few deductions (no childcare, no mortgage for renters) so check your facts before generalizing about negligent citizens. The Government seized control of our lives a long time ago.
This thread is about the looming insolvency of Social Security and what is to be done about it. If you can’t make a coherent, substantive contribution to the subject at hand then maybe you should do something else. Whittling, perhaps?
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