Should the Social Security and Medicare Age be Raised

[Ray From Cleveland]

It's not the 1% in this case.
It is the 45%. Republicans.
Conservatives, like myself, are a hard no on raising taxes. Not when we repeatedly see our government wasting $100s of Billions like it is a used paper cup. You take the unconscious "Build back Better". The EXACT thing the federal government does so they can spend $billions on pet projects and pay backs. Pick out something everyone can agree with (in this case infrastructure) - name the bill after that, only talk about that, when anyone complains about it - say "oh so you are against infrastructure??!!" and then make a bill that is overwhelmingly pork spending and only pocket change for what the bill is names after.

So. No. Not raising taxes.

Rand Paul Outlines $54 Billion in ‘Outlandish’ Government Waste in Annual Festivus Report | National Review

Among Paul’s instances of waste were several health studies, including more than $36 million spent on studying why stress makes hair turn gray.

www.nationalreview.com

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Sorry to hear of your disability but good on you for planning well. Your sister has plenty of company, but as you stated, there are options that could allow her to leave a job that she hates. Both my wife and I came from poor families and had very similar goals to be financially independent. But oddly it doesn't run in the family with either of us. My brother would be in dire straits without both military and SS retirements. My wife has brothers and sisters who are also far from secure. Planning and money management seems to be a very individual thing.

The real problem is it's not taught in school. It wasn't when I was in school and it wasn't when my nephew and niece were in school. If you want to learn about finances or investments, you need to go to college. What we teach in high school is guilt of your skin color.

 

[Foolardi]

Those were examples of the difference between doing office work all your life and physical work.

Also, truckers can work as many hours a week as they want, they just can't drive after they hit 70 hours, also, when you are otr, you run with a rolling log book, so you can legally drive every single day...for the most part.

As long as their Log Books record their rest periods.Truckers
CANNOT drive non-stop all day or all night.
They have to stop for rest.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

We as a nation had the very real opportunity to fix soc and sec and medicare - without altering eligibilty age - in the 2000 election. W wanted to cut taxes instead. And I voted for W, but it was more about voting against Gore, but really, could anyone have been worse than W.

Even now, we could simply not cap taxes on income. But the progressives worry more about people who NEVER worked, and both parties are paid off by the 1% to not raise their taxes

The 1% have nothing to do with it. If SS and Medicare were properly funded, then the cry from voters would be to get rid of the programs because they suck too much out of your paycheck. People would demand we do the smart thing and allow private industry to handle our contributions.

As long as these programs are popular with the people, and they are, they will just keep kicking the can down the road until the last generation when the money runs out get totally screwed.

 

[kyzr]

There was nothing wrong or destructive about Bush's idea to allow us the ability to privately invest a small percentage of our own money. Portraying that as trying to destroy SS was silly.

You can put all the money you want in a 401k. SS solvency needs everyone's contribution.

 

[kyzr]

We can thank Democrat president LBJ for that. He raided the trust fund to pay for the war in Vietnam. Now the trust fund is a collection of IOU's

Link to that or you're a liar. Here's a link for you to read.

Social Security Bunk - Again - FactCheck.org

Here we go again: another phony and misleading claim that somebody is "robbing Social Security."

www.factcheck.org

Worth noting is that the Social Security surplus that gave rise to years of partisan sniping has now disappeared, not because the trust fund was “raided” or “robbed” but because more people are retiring and drawing benefits. The cost of those benefits now exceeds the payroll tax revenues that go into the two Social Security trust funds (one for retirees and one for the disabled).

As we noted some time ago, the combined trust funds reached a tipping point in 2010, when they began running a primary deficit (exclusive of interest paid into the funds from general revenues) rather than a surplus. According to the most recent accounting from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the trust funds ran a combined primary deficit of $73 billion in fiscal 2014, a figure projected to rise to $78 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends at the end of this month.

Back when there were surpluses, they weren’t really diverted, but were duly invested in interest-bearing Treasury securities as required by law. Even accounting for those interest payments, however, the combined trust funds will be depleted entirely in 2034, according to the latest report of the system’s trustees. At that point, the system would have only enough income to provide 79 percent of promised benefits, the trustees said.

The basic cause is demographic: In 1960 there were five workers paying payroll taxes for every Social Security beneficiary. That was down to fewer than three workers last year, and is projected to decline to 2.2 workers per beneficiary in 2030.

 

[Lesh]

It is not a matter of auditing the fund. It is a function of how the fund operates. The money going into it are used to buy bonds that are sold to the fund. Money from the sale of those bonds goes into the general fund. It is, quite literally, designed so that money goes directly to the government to spend.

And then is paid BACK when those T Bills come due

 

[Wyatt earp]

And 10% is almost double that with no guarantee of ANY return?

Where have you been, the news reports for the past 35 years have been saying the money will run out in the 2030's

People had THREE decades to prepare for the worse and politicians did nothing So far yet raise the age to 67 on generation X

 

[Lesh]

Link to that or you're a liar. Here's a link for you to read.

Social Security Bunk - Again - FactCheck.org

Here we go again: another phony and misleading claim that somebody is "robbing Social Security."

www.factcheck.org

Worth noting is that the Social Security surplus that gave rise to years of partisan sniping has now disappeared, not because the trust fund was “raided” or “robbed” but because more people are retiring and drawing benefits. The cost of those benefits now exceeds the payroll tax revenues that go into the two Social Security trust funds (one for retirees and one for the disabled).

As we noted some time ago, the combined trust funds reached a tipping point in 2010, when they began running a primary deficit (exclusive of interest paid into the funds from general revenues) rather than a surplus. According to the most recent accounting from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the trust funds ran a combined primary deficit of $73 billion in fiscal 2014, a figure projected to rise to $78 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends at the end of this month.

Back when there were surpluses, they weren’t really diverted, but were duly invested in interest-bearing Treasury securities as required by law. Even accounting for those interest payments, however, the combined trust funds will be depleted entirely in 2034, according to the latest report of the system’s trustees. At that point, the system would have only enough income to provide 79 percent of promised benefits, the trustees said.

The basic cause is demographic: In 1960 there were five workers paying payroll taxes for every Social Security beneficiary. That was down to fewer than three workers last year, and is projected to decline to 2.2 workers per beneficiary in 2030.

And not too far in the future the main draw on the system (Baby Boomers) will have died off

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

And you're spouting the talking points of the conservative rich...against your own best interests

IRAs and 401s are great SUPPLEMENTS...to a social security based retirement...unless you are REALLY wealthy

No, IRA"s and 401's are supposed to be your support when you get older. SS was designed as the supplement. Unfortunately a lot of people don't look at it that way, even though the government has said that over and over again.

 

[Lesh]

Where have you been, the news reports for the past 35 years have been saying the money will run out in the 2030's

People had THREE decades to prepare for the worse and politicians did nothing So far yet raise the age to 67 on generation X

Wrong. The Trust Fund (Treasury Bills) will be exhausted around 2035. At that point the system itself will generate 75% of what is required.

That remaining 25% can be made up by simply raising the cap

If you don't know what that means look it up or ask me.

 

[Lesh]

No, IRA"s and 401's are supposed to be your support when you get older. SS was designed as the supplement. Unfortunately a lot of people don't look at it that way,

You have it exactly backwards as always

 

[Foolardi]

And then is paid BACK when those T Bills come due

T-bills are a pathetic example of Investing.
There was a time when T-bills yielded a nice
return.Those days are Long gone.Just as
CD's saw a demise.

 

[percysunshine]

The only way the government can fix this problem is to inflate their way out of it.

A sucker is born every minute.

 

[Foolardi]

You have it exactly backwards as always

Git the " F " off this message Board.
Yer here to be fractious.Everything you say is a
pile of crap.When you said " as always " the Mods
need to make an example of you.
I've witnessed Message Board Posters like you before.
You are here to make trouble.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

You have it exactly backwards as always

I do? Then what does the first "S" in SSI stand for? It stands for Supplementary. Look it up yourself.

 

[Wyatt earp]

Wrong. The Trust Fund (Treasury Bills) will be exhausted around 2035. At that point the system itself will generate 75% of what is required.

That remaining 25% can be made up by simply raising the cap

If you don't know what that means look it up or ask me.

Ask you what? Considering your oblivious to the fact everyone knew SS was running out of money 30 to 40 years ago?

 

[Lesh]

Ask you what? Considering your oblivious to the fact everyone knew SS was running out of money 30 to 40 years ago?

You mean when Reagan bumped up the Trust Fund to deal with that?

 

[Wyatt earp]

You have it exactly backwards as always

You been smoking meth with Joe again, where up is down and left is right?

For the millionth time SS was only designed for a few people who were lucky enough to make it to 65 years old not millions

 

[Wyatt earp]

You mean when Reagan bumped up the Trust Fund to deal with that?

What you forgot about Carter who tried to get a handle on the people faking a disability like you?