Posted on 07/22/2019 3:53:32 AM PDT by george76
Bernie Sanders .. wants to expand Social Security, even as the program will pass an omnious tipping point.
Some time next year, as the ranks of retirees swell, the Social Security system in the United States will pass an ominous tipping point and start the slide into insolvency.
For the first time in nearly four decades, the government program that provides retirement checks to older Americans will pay out more in benefits in 2020 than it takes in. That will force the program to dip into a rainy day fund that will be depleted in about 15 years.
And if the political dysfunction in Washington continues and lawmakers don’t fix the system, benefit cuts are in store for current and future retirees, most of whom haven’t socked away enough money in their personal retirement accounts.
...
most Americans are seriously unprepared for retirement, particularly the boomer generation.
...
Yet despite years of warnings from policy wonks and financial professionals, the looming crisis in Social Security has lacked urgency and barely enters the public debate. The funding shortfall, which policy makers have seen coming for years, didn’t merit a mention in the Democratic presidential debates in June.
...
While the issue has drawn little attention in the presidential campaign, most of the Democratic candidates have called for not only stabilizing the Social Security program but increasing benefits, offering varying degrees of detail on how to pay for it. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders are part of an “Expand Social Security Caucus,” and both would finance the cost of additional benefits, in part, by increasing taxes
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
You would think that this would rank as the number one or two problem for the 2020 election, and no one says much of anything.
Get rid of the illegal alien and welfare freeloaders, re-establish the lock box, and SS is golden.
Why is this angle never talked about ?
And of course, the Globe wishes for republicans to get concerned and make long proposals about how they will fix it by cutting benefits. The Globe (along with the Dems) will then express utter outrage and the Democrats sweep the elections [This seems vaguely familiar].
“That will force the program to dip into a rainy day fund that will be depleted in about 15 years.”
There is no “rainy day fund”.
There never was a “rainy day fund”.
There never will be a “rainy day fund”.
There is, however, a great big festering pile of IOUs from the Government sitting in a filing cabinet someplace.
And that’s it.
L
When I first joined the work force in 1962, my father told me not to sign up for Social Security, because it was a communist pyramid scheme. So, instead, I went to the IRS and got a tax number to file taxes with. When Carter became president, they made Social Security mandatory for everyone and I had to get a Social Security Card. My dad was right; it is a pyramid scheme, and it’s double taxed to boot. They take out the taxes, then Social Security. When you reach retirement age and they begrudgingly give back some of the money you earned, they take out income tax again. That double taxing.
Yep, the “Rainy Day Fund” is the equivalent of saying “we’re going to live off our credit cards”. Works great until someone pulls your credit line.
The US is banking on remaining the world’s reserve currency because that is the only way money can be printed ad infinitum.
At some point no one is going to want to buy tulips anymore.
As I recall, George H. Bush made fixing SS one of his election platforms. And when he was elected and started to work on establishing mechanisms for people to invest in private funds instead of SS, the left went ballistic. Then 9-11 happened, and most of his campaign promises were permanently derailed.
Throwing good money after bad.
I heard once that if every Church in the United States took care of the homeless the sick in the infirm there wouldn’t be a problem and Social Security might not be necessary.
But that was years ago, and I have no idea if there was any validity attached to that statement.
Perhaps FDR had good intentions by instituting Social Security, perhaps. But like many (if not all) programs of good intentions are soon manipulated to the point where the good intentions might still be exist however the manipulation completely ruins an otherwise altruistic benefit.
But, a constitutional republic government does not exist to be altruistic entity if it abides strictly by the Constitution. Altruistic ventures are in essence the domain of We the People. It is when We the People do not pick up these civil needs or perhaps even duties that soon the government takes on the spectre of something far more sinister and intrusive then it was ever supposed to be.
Yes
There was opposition in such magnitude that passage was not possible
The democrats will not permit any privitazation of a government retirement program
What happens to Soc Sec if all the money that goes to 3rd world savages gets taken away? What happens to SocSec when all the people who are collecting SSI for no reason are booted from it? What happens to SocSec when foreigners who come here under Family Reunification and are able to apply for those very same benefits when they shouldn’t even be in the country, in the first place, are booted from the program?
The reason it’s going insolvent because too many folks that have no business collecting it, are collecting it.
Agree. SS has to be separated from welfare programs and disability programs ( so many fake injuries ).
Hope they kept their Beanie Babies!
My personal bugaboo is disabilities due to "lardassis" (lard ass disease).
More proof that socialism doesn’t work.
Social Security IS welfare.
“At some point no one is going to want to buy tulips anymore.”
Indeed. When something can’t go on it won’t go on. Pretty simple, really.
L
Per the “double tax”, that actually only occurs if you continue to work and/or exceed income thresholds.
One thing most don’t realize is that for every dollar taken out for SS you see on your check (which you pay tax on at the time) a dollar is contributed by the employer (which is not taxed then).
The income of the employer half is taxed when you start receiving SS. That’s why one of the first lines on the SS worksheet is multiply by 0.5. Tax on the employer half is not a double tax.
For the employer, it is an off the top deduction so they are not paying tax on it either at the time of deposit.
Just give me the money I paid in.
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