Posted on 12/25/2012 9:00:03 AM PST by SeekAndFind
But we can’t fix Social Security, AND Medicare, AND Medicaid, AND Obama Care, AND police the whole world.
We finally have to make some choices.
Stop Borrowing Excess Revenue From The Social Security Trust Fund For General Expenditures.
I’ve said for years that Social Security will be “fixed” partly through a deliberate under-reporting of inflation figures that constrains cost-of-living increases over time. Think of it: the government reports inflation of 1.5% while the real rate of inflation is 5% or higher, and it’s obvious what is happening here.
Algore preached about the "lock box" for well over a year way back in 1999 yet the congress, the media and the voters were deaf to the subject.
R:E Algore preached about the “lock box” for well over a year way back in 1999
One of the few things I agreed with Al Gore.
“Andrew Biggs, resident scholar with the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, argues that another option would be to dial down benefits for middle- and high-income people while maintaining the current system for the poorest Americans.”
That sounds like a good option. Gazillionaires like Barbra Streisand and Michael Moore dont’t need it as much.
There is no excess revenue from the SS tax and there never will be again. From now on SS is a drain on the treasure, hot a source of income. This is the source of the crisis.
I wonder what might have happened if the lying, cheating embezzling bastards in congress had left the fund alone and actually kept it in a stand alone fund
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
It still would go actuarially bankrupt.
Fiscal responsibility just doesn’t translate to winning elections anymore. The producers have lost, the consumers have won. We will continue to print fiat at a rate which guarantees the power base of the Ruling Elite. Ultimately wealth will be confiscated, power consolidated, and there will be an ever-widening gap between the Ruling Elite and the proletariat.
“...Means testing at any “high” level will become bastardized and abused within no time until only the “poor” qualify....”
:::::::::::::::
POOR = Obama voters.
16 months ago, Thaddeus McCotter introduced the SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT (HR 2889) which not only “saved” SOCIAL SECURITY, but did so without raising the retirement age, without lowering benefits, without raising the withholding tax and without privatizing the system. Written with Peter J. Ferrara, it was scored by the SOCIAL SECURITY ACTUARY as creating the LARGEST REDUCTION IN GOVERNMENT SPENDING IN HISTORY! ($6.8 trillion over 30 years) Do you know where it went? NOWHERE! Why, you ask? Because it created INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTS with your name on it (not private) that the Federal Government could no longer dip into. Please look into this excellent piece of legislation.
Here’s the way you fix Social Security, once and for all. First, the amount of money you’re entitled to is equal to your contributions, what your employer chipped in and the whopping 1% return that the Social Security Administration advertises. In my case, that will be about $120,000. At retirement age, I’d have the option of a lump sum payment or monthly checks until the money is exhausted.
Force people to take control of their retirement, or learn to live a very meager existence in their later years. Even FDR said that Social Security would have to be eventually replaced by private accounts, linked to investments that actually paid a decent rate of return.
Sadly, most Americans don’t understand the concept of long-term investing and compound interest. They’re more than content to remain latched to the government teat, and let someone else foot the bill.
Your proposal sounds nice, but HOW?
First, there will not be any “excess revenues” for awhile, until something changes.
Next?
Where on Earth do you propose we PUT any “excess”?
If the money goes into bonds -— that money flows to the GENERAL FUND and will be spent!
In other words fix it by liquidating it.
I agree but very few of our fellow citizens will.
Again, WHERE do you put the money?
HOW is it “invested”??
If the money goes into US Bonds, the money is SPENT, period!
There is NO way to avoid this fact, other than to “PRIVATIZE” and put the money in mutual funds or something, like Bush suggested.
Actually, we already tax SS benefits.
That does, pretty much, the same thing.
What you do with it was the gapping hole in Algores “Lock Box”. I think people envisioned a huge Scruge McDuck vault.
You either buy govm’t bonds or stocks and do people really want the Federal Government owning huge swaths of the private economy?
Easiest solution: bailout.
One-time payment to pay out everyone the amount they have put into SS, allowing for annual interest. Completely zero the SS Fund.
After that, people have the option each year at taxtime on whether or not they want to contribute to SS or not for the following year.
If not, they are no longer eligible for benefits.
If so, they can select the percentage amount, all proceeds go into the SS Fund, and are NOT OTHERWISE TOUCHED.
You are only eligible for SS up to the amount you’ve paid in, plus annual interests.
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