The End of ALL Entitlements

[DBA]

Do away with inheritances and see how many big allegedly self made heroes are left standing. lol

Yeah, Democrat losers would love nothing more than to distribute inherited wealth to pay off more student loans and the like. Losers.

I have worked and saved my entire life to leave some sort of legacy for my children and to make their life easier.

 

[Stann]

This is patently false.

I paid into it and still working at 72 ( part-time ) so I'm still paying into it ; over 50 years now. I've only been getting the benefits for 5 years now.

 

[DBA]

It's a very bad idea when a government cheats it's own citizens. Our government has used Social Security as it's piggy bank to rob from so much , they can't even keep track of how much they've borrowed out of it , nevermind the interest owed on that money. The system would have no problem with funding had they not robbed from it.

Yep, this is true. The highest earners don’t, on average, collect all the money they(and their employers) contributed to SS and that is not even counting for interest that could have bee earned on their contributions had the coffers not been raided.

 

[DBA]

I paid into it and still working at 72 ( part-time ) so I'm still paying into it ; over 50 years now. I've only been getting the benefits for 5 years now.

Exactly. You are not likely to ever get back what you paid in, particularly if interest was included.

 

[Stann]

Yeah, Democrat losers would love nothing more than to distribute inherited wealth to pay off more student loans and the like. Losers.

I have worked and saved my entire life to leave some sort of legacy for my children and to make their life easier.

Since more republicans are on the lower end of the spectrum in the economy , more republicans would be abusing the system. I am still working , having had Cancer twice it wiped out ALL my savings and never able to recoup. Thank GOD for social security , I'd be homeless were it not for it. Can't work full-time anymore and don't know how much longer I can work at all.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

No. I saw it in documentary a fews years ago regarding the federal budget.

Then it can be dismissed.

Thanks.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I am curious to hear from all of you in response to the following hypothetical question:

If all entitlements were to end tomorrow, what do you think would be the state of our culture and economy in ten years?

By the way, under this notion, American citizens would receive compensation to direct contribution programs such as Social Security, but ONLY to the amount each individual paid into that program. And I apologize in advance if this type of thread is posted in the wrong forum of this site.

So why wasn’t the amount I paid in invested in equities and earning a return?

Why is it taxed — again when I receive it?

 

[SavannahMann]

I am curious to hear from all of you in response to the following hypothetical question:

If all entitlements were to end tomorrow, what do you think would be the state of our culture and economy in ten years?

By the way, under this notion, American citizens would receive compensation to direct contribution programs such as Social Security, but ONLY to the amount each individual paid into that program. And I apologize in advance if this type of thread is posted in the wrong forum of this site.

Our total population would be five percent lower, and the prison population would be increased by at least fifty percent. Taxes would be at least thirty percent higher to afford the crash building program for new prisons and police. Civil Rights would be severely curtailed and that is just the beginning.

 

[BlindBoo]

You are pretending that entitlement programs like Social Security are a welfare handout. Those who have paid into the system all our lives are entitled to the benefits we were promised. Full stop.

 

[DGS49]

SS is not an "entitlement." It is a savings plan, a "trust fund" and a mechanism for dispensing money from the trust fund. FIT dollars are not involved.

An "entitlement" is a program created by government, by which tax dollars are granted to persons of a particular status or condition. Food stamps (or whatever they are called now), housing subsidies, public schools, welfare, Medicaid...these are all entitlements. Parenthetically, the USSC has ruled that once an entitlement is created by the State, it cannot be withheld from anyone due to their immigration status. This is bullshit, but it is the law.

The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (that is, Congress) HAS NO CONSTITUTIONAL POWER TO CREATE OR FUND ANY ENTITLEMENT. And often, Congress just sends much of the money to the States, and the entitlements themselves are administered and partly-funded by the States.

It would be interesting if some citizen sued Congress to require that Congress cease and desist funding entitlements, for Constitutional reasons. The citizen(s) would win, however, there would be several procedural roadblocks.

 

[AtlasWept]

Our total population would be five percent lower, and the prison population would be increased by at least fifty percent. Taxes would be at least thirty percent higher to afford the crash building program for new prisons and police. Civil Rights would be severely curtailed and that is just the beginning.

Interesting response. What civil rights do you think would be curtailed and why?

 

[AtlasWept]

So why wasn’t the amount I paid in invested in equities and earning a return?

Why is it taxed — again when I receive it?

It shouldn't be taxed -- ever. But I know exceeding outside income limits results in a 2 to 1 benefits loss for every dollar exceeding the income limit amount. The investment question I can't speak to. I don't know -- probably some sort of conceptual prohibition.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

It shouldn't be taxed -- ever. But I know exceeding outside income limits results in a 2 to 1 benefits loss for every dollar exceeding the income limit amount. The investment question I can't speak to. I don't know -- probably some sort of conceptual prohibition.

Why isn’t the “Trust Fund” invested in US equities in the first place?

 

[22lcidw]

Perhaps we believe we can get something for nothing. And we use very excuse in every way to deny it. This thread is about entitlements. Social Security which is a tax on employees and businesses actually is a massive tax. And it is in some trouble. Its companion entitlement Medicare is massively underfunded. Medicare is underfunded. The third rail of American politics. Medicaid is non funded. In medical ways, there is corruption and medicine is a business. And the waste is a lot.

 

[AtlasWept]

Why isn’t the “Trust Fund” invested in US equities in the first place?

No idea. I do know managing such a fund would add significantly to the cost of managing the trust.

 

[BlindBoo]

No idea. I do know managing such a fund would add significantly to the cost of managing the trust.

The Social Security trust funds are invested entirely in U.S. Treasury securities. Like the Treasury bills, notes, and bonds purchased by private investors around the world, the Treasury securities that the trust funds hold are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. The U.S. government has never defaulted on its obligations, and investors consider U.S. government securities one of the world’s safest investments.

By the end of 2021, the trust funds had accumulated $2.9 trillion worth of Treasury securities, earning an average interest rate of 1.4 percent during that year. The Social Security Administration provides monthly reports on the investment holdings of the trust funds, their maturities, and interest rates. The trustees project that the trust funds will earn $65.7 billion in interest income in 2023.

Policy Basics: Understanding the Social Security Trust Funds | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The trust funds are invested in Treasury securities that are just as sound as all other U.S. government securities, held by investors around the globe and regarded as being among the world’s safest investments.

www.cbpp.org

 

[DudleySmith]

Yeah, Democrat losers would love nothing more than to distribute inherited wealth to pay off more student loans and the like. Losers.

I have worked and saved my entire life to leave some sort of legacy for my children and to make their life easier.

All you can come up with is dumb stuff? typical. You didn't do shit on your own. You were born into and benefited from a system you had squat to do with developing, it was entirely built by others before you. Sanitation systems, food networks, military and police defenses, etc. Now right wingers snivel all about how they shouldn't pay anything and how we need to destroy it all just to appease their silly infantile ideological fantasies. Move to Somalia if you hate govt. so much. Impress us all with your superior productivity n stuff.

 

[DudleySmith]

No idea.

Well, that's obvious.

 

[DudleySmith]

Social Security which is a tax on employees and businesses actually is a massive tax.

It's a forced savings program. It's also a price we pay in order to protect the bennies and subsidies corporations get. Without it you would see a lot more left wing voters than you have now. More likely you wouldn't see any voting at all.

 

[OldFlame]

People died of poverty all the time before entitlements and probably die now because of poverty.

At one point I was getting videos on Facebook from someone who went interviewing homeless people in the US.... It happens. Just because you don't see.

Also, the NHS in the UK costs less per capita than what the US federal govt spends on healthcare.

And that gets most people NOTHING.

"Homeless" people are drug addicts, they're not homeless because they're poor, they're homeless because they spend every dime they pilfer from someone on drugs.