Top Republican: Raise Social Security's retirement age to 70

The Hill ^

[wiggen]

Union people getting pensions over 30k shoud be excluded from SS benefits. Thats still more than what people collect living off SS.
Hell,without the commie in the White House the auto workers would have seen their bennies go out the window as they so richly deserved.

[rhombus]

and he suggested reducing or eliminating benefits to Americans with a "substantial non-Social Security income" while retired.

I've got a big problem with that one.

I have a big problem with that too. Then it just makes it a welfare program and we are punishing those who saved year after year after year. I personally could have taken a lot more vacations if I knew I was going to be punished for saving.

[GOPJ]

OTOH, the average life expectancy of black males is about 65

Bull. The average age thing looks dramatic until you take a closer look. Turns out more blacks die in infancy - drug abusing mothers... mothers too young to have children - mothers without husbands... That takes a toll. White lower class women who make the same choices also hurt their offspring. But the numbers are higher for blacks.

Then factor in higher than average black teen crime, inadequate parenting, sexual promiscuity with higher rates of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, teen gang membership, longer criminal records ( yeah - crime is a dangerous occupation) and a picture starts to emerge.

If a black man works his whole life - at a legal job - and has on average the same marital history - and retires - his life expectancy isn't that much different than a while male who does the same.

So it's you, nonstatist who needs to get real...

[Frenchtown Dan]

I’d like to send him “down the road”.

I was never for Social Security. It’s theft, plain and simple, but I want what I “contributed” before I die.

[ilovesarah2012]

Why not just eliminate SS altogether? Let everyone be responsible for their own retirement. Problem solved.

[a fool in paradise]

Just wait until it comes out that we can’t afford all of the government pensions on top of this...

[chris_bdba]

I’m a boomer and this doesn’t lost my vote? I think he is being very honest wwe can’t keep having people retire nd live off of SS for 25 years. That is not what it was designed to do it was designed to be used in the last years of ones life which would be now more like over 70yo.

[Notary Sojac]

If we are going to return Social Security (and Medicare) to solvency, we have to do one of the following:

(1) Some flavor of what Boehner is talking about.

(2) Raise taxes on employees and employers (what the Dems will do if in power).

(3) Find a magic unicorn that can fart precious metals into the lock box.

There is no other combination of expense cuts, no secret slush fund of "waste" that is big enough to offset the baked-in metastasizing growth of these two programs.

[chris_bdba]

I’m a boomer and this doesn’t lose my vote? I think he is being very honest we can’t keep having people retire and live off of SS for 25+ years. That is not what it was designed to do it was designed to be used in the last years of ones life which would be now more like over 70yo.

[kickstart]

I would only agree if my SS money was guaranteed for me or my heirs. I want all the money I and my employer put in.

[bert]

.....We’re all living a lot longer than anyone ever expected....

I suspect this applies to those of us in their 60’s and perhaps our boomer siblings. In my long view it does not apply to many who are now in their twenties and thirties and forties.

They are obese, terminally obese, and will do well to make it till 45. I have looked at those I see walking around and have concluded that the normal situation where women outlive men will reverse. There will be many many deaths of 40 something obese women who leave behind husbands and children.

Jack sprat will survive and his fat eating wife will die young.

[RockinRight]

It’s probably gonna happen anyway.

The system HAS to be changed, however, a true reform would look something like this and have many other parts to it:

1. A phase-in privatization where people pay into a private, but insured account placed in relatively conservative investments. Those under 30, for example, would pay exclusively into a private account, 30 - 50 would split it somehow, and over 50 pay the existing system. Since older workers tend to make more this would skew things in favor of those already recieving social security over the private accounts initially.

2. The 6% employers now pay to SS would now be paid into the employee’s private account the same way it’s now paid into the ponzi scheme (proportioned according to age as indicated above).

3. Major cuts in entitlements in other areas (including “disability” payments for people perfectly capable of getting a low-impact job that would pay the $1200 a month or so they recieve on SSI now), and shaving off Congressional and civil service pensions to something more comparable to the private sector would help shore up the funding needed to make up the shortfall created by step #1 to cover existing obligations under the “old system”.

4. For those who are unable to earn enough (or have a spouse to do so) in private accounts, a very very small system can be kept in place that is the same as the current system. SSI would also be covered under this umbrella.

[tumblindice]

“Obama’s good for GOP, Boehner says” (thread above)
Go pound sand, Boner. I’m voting for tea party candidates.
Period.

[Gene Eric]

>> If we do not solve entitlements, the base will crumble. If we attack entitlements, the center will not hold.

It doesn’t need to be a paradox for Conservatives. It only needs to be communicated that in order to sustain the Liberal entitlement policies, the non-beneficiaries need to produce more.

The Democrats use class warfare, the Republicans should use attitude warfare.

There is a tremendous reservoir of self-respect that’s waiting to be tapped in this Country. The GOP must drill for it, while the Democrats refuse to go near it.

[dragnet2]

Boner is a total idiot. This loses the Elderly and babyboom vote.

How so?

Are you nuts?

Ya think anyone that has had their income confiscated for the past 40 years by this corrupt government is just going to say, "Oh, OK, just keep the $250,000 you confiscated from me then looted and squandered".....No problem

Right......

[RockinRight]

He didn’t say that we should do that.

[meyer]

Unfortunately, he’s right. There’s two ways to make Social Security solvent (outside of abolishing it, privatizing it, or otherwise altering it) - those two ways are:

1 - increase incoming money by raising taxes
2 - decreasing outgoing money by reducing benefits

[wiggen]

I have no probelem with people that create their own nest egg keeping that and getting SS. Pensions that were barely paid into most especially govt pensions,should disqualify a person from collecting SS. (over a certain number of course. not advocating a person that retired 30 years ago and collecting small amounts of pension and SS should be tossed into the street.)

[RockinRight]

As it stands now, most retirees get MORE than they actually paid in to it, IIRC.

[jiminycricket000]

""We're all living a lot longer than anyone ever expected," Boehner said "

This plan by Senator Bonehead is pure selfishness, he hasn't a clue of what it's like to grow old in the real world. It's a stinking canard that people live longer and healthier. People are not living longer and healthier. There are medicines that keep people alive longer but this does not mean they don't still suffer from all the ills and infirmaties of old age. As you age you get those inevetable things like arthritis, hardening of the arteries, heart trouble, high blood pressure, lack of energy, problems remembering, frequent visits to the bathroom, a gradual loss of eyesight and hearing, loss of reflexes. You tire quickly, have developed bad joints that cause chronic pain, ability to handle stress is diminished, you've likely had several surgeries and long illnesses that have drained you, you're not nearly as strong as you once were, you simply need retirement, not more work. Forcing elderly to work until they're 70 will surely put many into an otherwise early grave, (which, I'm sure, is the plan here anyway).

The "ME generation" will put its elderly six feet under, without any qualms, so they can have more for themselves. But what goes around comes around, they too will age and find out that old age isn't what they were told, and hence they will screw themselves in the end. A fitting end for them too, imho.

There may be some who age slowly, such as Senators who don't do squat and have the best health care on earth, and who take frequent vacations, but most people have worked hard all their lives, raised their children, fought the wars, built the nation and paid their dues, and need rest as life draws to a conclusion, not Doctor Bohner's prescription of work till you die.