Paul Ryan flip-flops on Ayn Rand: "“I reject her philosophy”

[SniperFire]

Social Security currently has a $1.5 trillion surplus, invested in U.S. Government securities - drawing interest.

Trust Fund FAQs

You are such a fucking idiot. SS is insolvent in 2017. Numbers cannot lie. Even Obama knows this.

Insolvent = unable to pay debts

Moron.

So, where is your "credible" PROOF?????

Trust Fund FAQs

Here you go. You are welcome!

Obama says he cannot guarantee Social Security checks will go out on August 3 - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

 

[TakeAStepBack]

Social Security is NOT broken. It simply needs continued tuning and tweaking like several times in the past to keep it viable for future recipients.



More: Social Security is Not Broken, Not Broke, and Certainly Not Bankrupt

The money is borrowed to pay recipients now and you say, "it needs a tweaking"?
There is also no adjustment to price increases within that 23% problem model.

It's like being so in debt that you pay monthly credit card balances with other credit cards and then say that if you can just get one new card you can get another 2-3 years out of your current debt/deficit accumulation model. It's the most piss poor lousy way of doing finances on earth and most important of all, it can not be sustained.

Stop being delusional.

Social Security currently has a $1.5 trillion surplus, invested in U.S. Government securities - drawing interest.

Trust Fund FAQs

Those "securities", are monetized debt. Which means someone on the market must purchase them in order for any of it to work. Last year, the federal resever bought 61% of all issuance. The demand for monetized govt. debt is dwindling quickly and furthermore, it is all debt. The program is already insolvent along with most everything else since the debt/deficit ratio to GDP is over 100%.

Again, one, or one nation, can not expect to live on borrowed money through credit indefintely. As the last two credit downgrades have shown. We're broke. Not understanding economics is simply no excuse any more. But the progressives just do not understand economics.

 

[Paulie]

SS is a welfare program that pays CURRENT EXPENSES.

There is no 'pool of money' that you have paid into waiting for you to recoup.

You plan to get in on this welfare program at age 65, just like everyone else, despite your professed adherence to lofty, esoteric Libertarian principle.

I still have my OWN "pool of money" that's been taken from me.

Sorry. You are slightly delusional if you believe the gummint has your sack of gold tucked away somewhere just waiting for you to cash in.

Of course they do...Their promise to pay me my benefits at retirement.

You're being purposely obtuse.

 

[Vidi]

I still have my OWN "pool of money" that's been taken from me.

Sorry. You are slightly delusional if you believe the gummint has your sack of gold tucked away somewhere just waiting for you to cash in.

Of course they do...Their promise to pay me my benefits at retirement.

You're being purposely obtuse.

As much as I hate to agree with Sniperfire, he is essentially correct.

Any money you pay into social security is used to pay for the expenses of the retired now. Any money you receive after age 65 will be money taken from those workers younger than you. It is by design and definition a Ponzi Scheme.



And as far as their "promise" goes, that promise is only as good as the legislators who uphold it. Eventually, that promise WILL be broken and an entire generation will be screwed.

 

[Paulie]

Sorry. You are slightly delusional if you believe the gummint has your sack of gold tucked away somewhere just waiting for you to cash in.

Of course they do...Their promise to pay me my benefits at retirement.

You're being purposely obtuse.

As much as I hate to agree with Sniperfire, he is essentially correct.

Any money you pay into social security is used to pay for the expenses of the retired now. Any money you receive after age 65 will be money taken from those workers younger than you. It is by design and definition a Ponzi Scheme.



And as far as their "promise" goes, that promise is only as good as the legislators who uphold it. Eventually, that promise WILL be broken and an entire generation will be screwed.

Yes, we all know the trust fund is no longer a trust fund and was looted decades ago. But it can just as easily be said that the SS liability is funded by foreign debt, or Federal Reserve debt, considering payroll taxes are not actually being parked in the trust fund anymore.

The point is, I don't care where it's coming from. It's being robbed from me my entire life, when I'd just as soon opt out and take NOTHING they have to offer me. But they've taken plenty so far, and I'm going to gladly accept it back when and if it's offered to me.

So is everyone else. There's not a person in existence, whether they agree with SS or not, who isn't going to accept their benefits at retirement.

 

[Lakhota]

Sorry. You are slightly delusional if you believe the gummint has your sack of gold tucked away somewhere just waiting for you to cash in.

Of course they do...Their promise to pay me my benefits at retirement.

You're being purposely obtuse.

As much as I hate to agree with Sniperfire, he is essentially correct.

Any money you pay into social security is used to pay for the expenses of the retired now. Any money you receive after age 65 will be money taken from those workers younger than you. It is by design and definition a Ponzi Scheme.



And as far as their "promise" goes, that promise is only as good as the legislators who uphold it. Eventually, that promise WILL be broken and an entire generation will be screwed.

Ponzi scheme? No, it isn't...

Social Security Online - HISTORY, Ponzi Schemes vs. Social Security

 

[Vidi]

Of course they do...Their promise to pay me my benefits at retirement.

You're being purposely obtuse.

As much as I hate to agree with Sniperfire, he is essentially correct.

Any money you pay into social security is used to pay for the expenses of the retired now. Any money you receive after age 65 will be money taken from those workers younger than you. It is by design and definition a Ponzi Scheme.



And as far as their "promise" goes, that promise is only as good as the legislators who uphold it. Eventually, that promise WILL be broken and an entire generation will be screwed.

Ponzi scheme? No, it isn't...

Social Security Online - HISTORY, Ponzi Schemes vs. Social Security

When the bonds of the first investors came due he paid them, with their miraculous profit, using the money collected from the second round of investors
...

There is a superficial analogy between pyramid or Ponzi schemes and pay-as-you-go programs in that in both money from later participants goes to pay the benefits of earlier participants. But that is where the similarity ends.

...

In this context, it would be most accurate to describe Social Security as a transfer payment--transferring income from the generation of workers to the generation of retirees

Yes it is. Even your link admits it.

Sure he changes the words around to pretend its something else...but in the end, at its most basic core, its a ponzi scheme.

The problem youre having is the negative connatation implied by the term "Ponzi Scheme". As long as there are enough of the younger generation paying into the scheme the older generation can be paid out of it.

Scheme does not neccessarily mean scam.

 

[SniperFire]

Of course they do...Their promise to pay me my benefits at retirement.

You're being purposely obtuse.

As much as I hate to agree with Sniperfire, he is essentially correct.

Any money you pay into social security is used to pay for the expenses of the retired now. Any money you receive after age 65 will be money taken from those workers younger than you. It is by design and definition a Ponzi Scheme.



And as far as their "promise" goes, that promise is only as good as the legislators who uphold it. Eventually, that promise WILL be broken and an entire generation will be screwed.

Yes, we all know the trust fund is no longer a trust fund and was looted decades ago. But it can just as easily be said that the SS liability is funded by foreign debt, or Federal Reserve debt, considering payroll taxes are not actually being parked in the trust fund anymore.

The point is, I don't care where it's coming from. It's being robbed from me my entire life, when I'd just as soon opt out and take NOTHING they have to offer me. But they've taken plenty so far, and I'm going to gladly accept it back when and if it's offered to me.

So is everyone else. There's not a person in existence, whether they agree with SS or not, who isn't going to accept their benefits at retirement.

Libertarianism is a noble philosophy... until it is time for you yourself to cash in on Big Brother. Let me guess. You will cash in on Medicare as well?

 

[Sarah G]

Rep. Paul Ryan and his on-again, off-again
political inspiration, Ayn Rand

By Scott Keyes

In 2005, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) heaped praise on Ayn Rand, a 20th-century libertarian novelist best known for her philosophy that centered on the idea that selfishness is “virtue”. The New Republic wrote:

“The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” Ryan said at a D.C. gathering four years ago honoring the author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”​

Ryan also noted in a 2003 interview with the Weekly Standard, “I give out ‘Atlas Shrugged’ as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it. Well… I try to make my interns read it.”

But today, Ryan is singing a far different tune.

From an interview with National Review’s Bob Costa this week:

“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,” who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he says.​

It’s understandable why Ryan would back off his former political muse. She described altruism as “evil,” condemned Christianity for advocating compassion for the poor, viewed the feminist movement as “phony,” and called Arabs “almost totally primitive savages.” Learn more about Ayn Rand in this short ThinkProgress video:

The Truth About GOP Hero Ayn Rand - YouTube

Despite Ryan’s newly-professed distaste for Rand, were she alive today, she would likely applaud Ryan for his draconian GOP budget, which cuts food stamps and other programs for the poor, ends Medicare as we know it, gives $3 trillion in tax breaks for corporations and the rich, and raises taxes on the poorest Americans.

Paul Ryan Flip Flops on Ayn Rand: ‘I Reject Her Philosophy’

NOTE: The above link contains live source links.

I doubt he even knows who Ayn Rand is, he's such a talking point idiot. How do these dumb Repubs get to this level?

 

[NYcarbineer]

Sorry. You are slightly delusional if you believe the gummint has your sack of gold tucked away somewhere just waiting for you to cash in.

Of course they do...Their promise to pay me my benefits at retirement.

You're being purposely obtuse.

As much as I hate to agree with Sniperfire, he is essentially correct.

Any money you pay into social security is used to pay for the expenses of the retired now. Any money you receive after age 65 will be money taken from those workers younger than you. It is by design and definition a Ponzi Scheme.



And as far as their "promise" goes, that promise is only as good as the legislators who uphold it. Eventually, that promise WILL be broken and an entire generation will be screwed.

No it's not a Ponzi scheme.

They are not paying current retirees with current revenues because they don't have any choice.

They could as easily redeem securities in the Trust Fund, pay retirees with that, and then use current incoming revenues to buy new securities and replace the ones they took out of the Trust Fund.

Ponzi schemes pay older investors with new money because they don't have any other money.

Get it?

 

[NYcarbineer]

Of course they do...Their promise to pay me my benefits at retirement.

You're being purposely obtuse.

As much as I hate to agree with Sniperfire, he is essentially correct.

Any money you pay into social security is used to pay for the expenses of the retired now. Any money you receive after age 65 will be money taken from those workers younger than you. It is by design and definition a Ponzi Scheme.



And as far as their "promise" goes, that promise is only as good as the legislators who uphold it. Eventually, that promise WILL be broken and an entire generation will be screwed.

Yes, we all know the trust fund is no longer a trust fund and was looted decades ago. But it can just as easily be said that the SS liability is funded by foreign debt, or Federal Reserve debt, considering payroll taxes are not actually being parked in the trust fund anymore.

The point is, I don't care where it's coming from. It's being robbed from me my entire life, when I'd just as soon opt out and take NOTHING they have to offer me. But they've taken plenty so far, and I'm going to gladly accept it back when and if it's offered to me.

So is everyone else. There's not a person in existence, whether they agree with SS or not, who isn't going to accept their benefits at retirement.

There is a Trust Fund it consists of US treasury securities, as it always has.

The Trust Fund is in US treasuries for in order to generate INTEREST INCOME. The idiots who want it to be stuck in a 'lockbox' somewhere under a mattress don't have a clue as to how one grows the value of an investment over time.

 

[Dot Com]

Rep. Paul Ryan and his on-again, off-again
political inspiration, Ayn Rand

By Scott Keyes

In 2005, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) heaped praise on Ayn Rand, a 20th-century libertarian novelist best known for her philosophy that centered on the idea that selfishness is “virtue”. The New Republic wrote:

“The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” Ryan said at a D.C. gathering four years ago honoring the author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”​

Ryan also noted in a 2003 interview with the Weekly Standard, “I give out ‘Atlas Shrugged’ as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it. Well… I try to make my interns read it.”

But today, Ryan is singing a far different tune.

From an interview with National Review’s Bob Costa this week:

“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,” who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he says.​

It’s understandable why Ryan would back off his former political muse. She described altruism as “evil,” condemned Christianity for advocating compassion for the poor, viewed the feminist movement as “phony,” and called Arabs “almost totally primitive savages.” Learn more about Ayn Rand in this short ThinkProgress video:

The Truth About GOP Hero Ayn Rand - YouTube

Despite Ryan’s newly-professed distaste for Rand, were she alive today, she would likely applaud Ryan for his draconian GOP budget, which cuts food stamps and other programs for the poor, ends Medicare as we know it, gives $3 trillion in tax breaks for corporations and the rich, and raises taxes on the poorest Americans.

Paul Ryan Flip Flops on Ayn Rand: ‘I Reject Her Philosophy’

NOTE: The above link contains live source links.

​

 

[Dot Com]

back to topic, Ryan (R) selling- out his closest held beliefs so that he doesn't lose cathlic voters.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

even ayn rand rejected her "philosophy" and lived on social security at the end of her life.

The SS she paid into her whole life?

Seems the irony and hypocrisy escapes you on this one.

You mean that Herr Ryan is still in-favor of using the Rand/Nazi description of the working middle-class......

.....i.e. useless parasites?

 

[Truthmatters]

No it doesn't. I'd opt out of SS in a second if I could, and I think it's unconstitutional and is bankrupting this nation. But when I hit 65 you're damn fucking straight I'm recouping what was taken from me.

which is why its there.

so many of you randians would end up in the street begging at the end of your lives just like rand

I could put that 6.2% to much better use. If I had put that money into the market in 08/09, it would be doubled now at the very least.

Instead, I have to hope and pray that it'll even still be there for me by the time I'm 65.

that is the type of crap rand said too.

She made a shitload of money off books and fucked it all up even though she thought she was the smartest most moral person in the world.

She trashed her finances and ended up on nothing but SS.

dear idiot the stock market isnt always up is it?

 

[Dot Com]

he shore must be scared of the catholic hierarchy to repudiate req'd reading of college repubs

 

[bripat9643]

Of course they do...Their promise to pay me my benefits at retirement.

You're being purposely obtuse.

As much as I hate to agree with Sniperfire, he is essentially correct.

Any money you pay into social security is used to pay for the expenses of the retired now. Any money you receive after age 65 will be money taken from those workers younger than you. It is by design and definition a Ponzi Scheme.



And as far as their "promise" goes, that promise is only as good as the legislators who uphold it. Eventually, that promise WILL be broken and an entire generation will be screwed.

Ponzi scheme? No, it isn't...

Social Security Online - HISTORY, Ponzi Schemes vs. Social Security

Yes it is a Ponzi scheme. It fits the definition to a 'T.'

Anyone who swallows propaganda from the SSA administration is too stupid to bother arguing with.

 

[SniperFire]

As much as I hate to agree with Sniperfire, he is essentially correct.

Any money you pay into social security is used to pay for the expenses of the retired now. Any money you receive after age 65 will be money taken from those workers younger than you. It is by design and definition a Ponzi Scheme.



And as far as their "promise" goes, that promise is only as good as the legislators who uphold it. Eventually, that promise WILL be broken and an entire generation will be screwed.

Yes, we all know the trust fund is no longer a trust fund and was looted decades ago. But it can just as easily be said that the SS liability is funded by foreign debt, or Federal Reserve debt, considering payroll taxes are not actually being parked in the trust fund anymore.

The point is, I don't care where it's coming from. It's being robbed from me my entire life, when I'd just as soon opt out and take NOTHING they have to offer me. But they've taken plenty so far, and I'm going to gladly accept it back when and if it's offered to me.

So is everyone else. There's not a person in existence, whether they agree with SS or not, who isn't going to accept their benefits at retirement.

There is a Trust Fund it consists of US treasury securities, as it always has.

These are IOU's. The money does not exist. The money has been spent on other kool stuff and replaced with said IOUs.

When the debt ceiling was not certain to be raised last year, Obama pointed out the SS checks would not be going out.

 

[bripat9643]

Yes it is. Even your link admits it.

Sure he changes the words around to pretend its something else...but in the end, at its most basic core, its a ponzi scheme.

The problem youre having is the negative connatation implied by the term "Ponzi Scheme". As long as there are enough of the younger generation paying into the scheme the older generation can be paid out of it.

Scheme does not neccessarily mean scam.

Actually, yes it does mean it's a scam. It's a means for greedy geezers to loot their children and grandchildren.

 

[bripat9643]

I doubt he even knows who Ayn Rand is, he's such a talking point idiot. How do these dumb Repubs get to this level?