Washington shell game on Social Security falling apart
January 16, 2013 at 9:56 am in News by Tea Party Patriots 20 Comments
For decades, those pushing to reform Social Security have been derided as alarmist and uncaring. The progressive view was that the program had plenty of funding. Now, via Investor’s Business Daily, it’s increasingly obvious that something has been very wrong for years:
For the first time since Social Security’s cash crisis in 1983, the program can’t afford to pay full benefits for its youngest crop of new retirees through life expectancy, government data show.
The hastening of the Social Security Trust Fund’s demise to 2033 means that workers just becoming eligible for Social Security at age 62 face steep future benefit cuts if they live to the average life expectancy, now about 84.
Those abrupt benefit cuts of about 25% a year for today’s 62 year olds and workers nearing the early retirement age would come at an especially bad time — late in life when savings have dwindled and health care bills are on the rise.
Even with this new reality, some continue to let political concerns outweigh moral ones:
A common argument on the left, recently espoused by AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka, is that benefit cuts for those who have paid into the trust fund would be unfair — some even say fraudulent.
“There is no justice at all in considering cuts to prepaid, earned-benefit programs like Social Security,” Trumka wrote in a recent op-ed.
The situation is pretty dire, no matter what Trumka or others claim:
Under current law, a worker who just turned 62 would face a 25% benefit cut once the trust is spent in early 2033. If that worker claims benefits at 62 and lives to the average expectancy of 84, she would face the equivalent of a 1% cut in lifetime retirement benefits.
Workers now 61 would, on average, lose the equivalent of a half year in benefits and face a 2% cut in lifetime benefits.
Workers now 55 would, on average, lose two full years’ worth of benefits, the equivalent of a 9.2% cut in lifetime benefits.
As Social Security continues to head towards bankruptcy, the American people must push our leaders in Washington to make smart, moral, necessary reforms to the program. Those who oppose Social Security reform claim it would harm those impacted, but not reforming the program in the near future will harm program participants and all Americans far worse.
I have an idea. Why not just repay what was stolen form the fund in the first place? It was never suspose to be taken to begin with. If the money stolen was repaid there would be no problem now would there.
Because they can’t! And they never will. So we need to move past what was and move on what is. We actually need to examine what Social Security really is. What is the validity for this program in the first place? Why do we need to give our money to the govt so they can give it back to us…without interest??? If we could just stabalize the money owed current Social Security recipients but make future payments optional. Either keep you paycheck or give part of it to the govt. Obviously, the program doesn’t work for a multitude of reasons and we need to ask if it’s viable for our future.
Hey, wasn’t that what was suggested when we were going to reform Soc Sec back in 2005, and demagogued to death until even solid conservatives stopped trying to fix Soc Sec and the squishy moderates took control of the agenda until they lost the Senate and House in 2006?
It should go back to being optional.. I feel I can do better with my money than what I’m forced to give and know I won’t get back in the end…
Hold on to your boot straps, talk is they (US Congress) is considering taking control of peoples 401k’s, IRA’s, etc.
Absolutely true. You need to move your money into a life insurance policy that has living benefits before the Feds raid your retirement accounts.
Nothing was “stolen”. The law has always required that F.I.C.A. “contributions” be used to purchase Treasury bonds.
Just like any other money used to buy bonds, that money then went into general revenues and was spent.
The bonds purchased by F.I.C.A. “contributions”, which are nothing more than I.O.U.s from the government to itself, were what was put in the “lockbox”.
To redeem the I.O.U.s in the “lockbox” requires tax money. To replace what you think was stolen requires tax money. To pay current S.S. recipients requires tax money.
“Saving ” S.S. will require that current young workers, the children and grandchildren of current recipients, be taxed into poverty.
How about Stop paying immigrants that just arrive in the country or people that never paid into SS in the first place.. Why should they get more money than my mother and anyone else that pay into the system their whole entire lives ?
Just doesn’t make sense to me !
How about paying the politicians social security benefits instead of their current retirement program. How about moving the money set aside for their “retirements” into the social security fund and then social security will be in the black. Politicians created this problem. They need to be treated like one of us. We elect them. They work for us. WE DO MNOT WORK FOR THEM.
How about pay retired congresscritters NOTHING. No health benefits. No lifetime pension. They live like the rest of us, except that if anyone’s soc security / medicare needs to be cut, theirs is cut first. That way they have an incentive to FIX the system. My preference is to abolish, but promises have been made and people have paid in since the 30s. We just need to find a way to wean off the teat of big govt.
congresscritters lol great content
This would be a great deal for the American citizen, however, we no longer have the power to make things like this happen. Politicians have been slowly getting to this point over the past several decades, as Politicians have and have had all the power to make this a reality for them and their families.
I’m no Einstein, but when I was in college in the early 70′s I came to the realization that the system was a Ponzi scheme that would fall apart as soon as the baby boomers started flowing into the withdrawal part of the system. All the add-ons that the politicians have tacked on for their own political gain have just accelerated the process.
That’s exactly right, Tom. I can see how possibly, this Ponzi scheme might work (however unlikely) if, and this is a very big if, there were no corruption in the govt.
socialism works great on paper but loses to socialist who capitalize on its resourses
The thiefs that stole social security,Where they arrested ,sentenced, fired,what happened to them.we want justice,how r we supposed to go about that.It is our moneyn we are being deprived of…………………
Plain and simple… Most people get more from Social Security and Medicare than they pay into the system. The gov’t has been borrowing it from the fund since it’s creation. For example, we used it to pay for World War 2 and research the Atomic bomb.
So Cheyl says “Why do we need to give our money to the govt so they can give it back to us…without interest???” and Hellfire says “Most people get more from Social Security and Medicare than they pay into the system.” Me, I just come here to watch people who don’t know what they’re talking about talk about it anyway.
I really do have to agree with your comment. LOL!! Even to the point of this article.
The only way to save social security at this point is to kick everybody off who has not paid into it. The only exception would be spouses of those who have paid into it but limit it to only one spouse; no ex spouses.
Many people have come into this country to retire and are on social security but have never aid into the system. They are slowly bleeding the program dry. If people from other countries want to come into our country to retire, let their children support them. They are not my parents so they are not my responsibility to support them. Why should the money I pay into the system today support someone who did not pay into the system yesterday?