Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I wish social security and medicare would have never passed. Both are loadstones around the neck of the nation and everyone will come to regret these programs.
And that's twice you've used "loadstone" (a variant of "lodestone", a type of magnetic rock)) when the word you should have used was "millstone". Doctors are better educated than that, and once our health care system is reformed sufficiently to bring Medicare stability within reach, it will join Social Security as being among the most popular and successful social programs in history.
There are no analyses concluding that those under fifty (or anyone else) will not get Social Security.
They do not say that SS will be able to pay 0% of scheduled benefits. They say it will be able to 73% of scheduled benefits. Indefinitely. Not 0%...73%. And by the way, 73% then will be worth more than 100% now. And of course if those projections turn out to be only slightly too pessimistic, the projected shortfall in funding will in fact never occur. SS will simply go on paying 100% of scheduled benefits indefinitely. All of this assumes that we decide to do nothing at all to reinforce Social Security at any point over the next 40 years. Anyone who seriously believes that he or she will never see anything out of Social Security has chugged a super-sized bottle of snake oil.
When the trust fund is exhausted my generation will get 73% of promised benefits. But, you conveniently left out that the trust fund is nothing but IOU's that must be paid back as they are cashed in to pay for said benefits. So, my generation will get payroll taxed for S.S., we will get taxed for all of the money that was looted out of the fund, and we will not get full benefits either. My generation is going to get the shaft.
Know anyone who would have a hard time getting by without social security and/or medicare? I do. Plenty of them. The Republicans fought against those programs tooth and nail. Thank god they lost.
Do you remember the Republican push to privatize social security? How would a privatized social security have worked out when the market collapsed? Sure, the banks and investment firms would have been rewarded (that's the point), but many small investors would have lost. Thank god the Republicans lost that fight too.
After the dust settles on this health care conundrum, after the misinformation campaigns against reform, after all the stall tactics and late night calls to connections in the pharmaceutical and health insurance corporations, and after all is said and done, it appears the Republicans will kill any substantial health care reform. Another attempt to provide a big safety net, another failure to achieve it. What we'll get is a band aid for a sucking chest wound. The Democrats will try to get their consolation prize piece of their health care reform past the god, guns and guts party to save face, but no one needs a road map to see what's coming after the Obama administrations time is up. When all's said and done, this vet and Independent voter most appreciates those who put their lives on the line. While they may not have the attorneys, lobbyists, and corporate CEO's on speed dial, while they may not have the multiple homes, seven figure retirement accounts, and the domestic servants that the suits wear in D.C. and our state capitals, while they may not play to main street and fly over America to confuse and obfuscate the truth, they are the brave ones I put my trust in. Even if most of them have no idea why they are really in harms way. Semper Fi.
People have to display personal responsibility and be active participants when it comes to funding that which has the potential to affect their quality of life.
Unactive participants in retirement accounts, those who put their money in and forget about it are bound to lose $$. It takes time, care, attention, and cultivation to make anything grow.
Same goes with SS and healthcare. We put the lawfully required amount of contribution into SS by having it with-held from our pay and then we forget about it, trusting the federal government to take care of it for us until it is time for us to begin making withdrawls. Instead they use it for their special interest slush fund.
Now Obama wants us to trust the government with the future of our health insurance. To just let the government take care of it after we pay our forced taxes into it.
Fool me twice indeed! The wolf guarding the sheep herd is more like it.
Ignore the man behind the curtain and lay down in the pretty poppy field. Poppies, poppies, poppies.... (Wizard of Oz).
why, sure. our pal saggy says social security couldn't be healthier.
Everything could be healthier. The question is whether you are willing to PAY to make it healthier. The boomers were.
Quote:
Originally Posted by uggabugga
go ahead and put an advance order in for that nice RV.
Go look at your Social Security benefits statement. Don't have one? Ask them for one. Then take that plus whatever is left of your company pension and 401-k balance, and figure out whether you can afford an RV. SS isn't designed to provide you with one. It was designed to provide a basic income floor beneath which you couldn't fall, no matter how often you screwed yourself over or helped elect people who did that for you. You're fortunate to have it. Just like everyone else.
Stop trying to cover for the lying bozo. Yes, virtually everything he ever said about Social Security was a lie. And he never put forward any plan at all. He alluded to this idea and that. Never an actual plan or any set-down proposal. You can't say what Bush's plan was or was not, because there never was such a plan.
Yes, he did put forth a plan. I might be a little off with my 1/3 claim (which warrants further investigation on my part), but the main gist of what I am saying is accurate.
Everything could be healthier. The question is whether you are willing to PAY to make it healthier. The boomers were.
The boomers are clueless and they will suck this country dry. You ever look at the projected cost of Medicare in the coming decades and how this nation will struggle to pay for it all?
When the trust fund is exhausted my generation will get 73% of promised benefits. But, you conveniently left out that the trust fund is nothing but IOU's that must be paid back as they are cashed in to pay for said benefits. So, my generation will get payroll taxed for S.S., we will get taxed for all of the money that was looted out of the fund, and we will not get full benefits either. My generation is going to get the shaft.
Those IOU's of yours are US Treasury securities, the safest, most secure investment vehicle in the history of the world, and the very thing that all those savvy Wall Street types went rushing off to buy (sometimes at yields below 0%) in their September 2008 "flight to safety" from collapsing equities markets. Amount of money lost by Social Security in the financial meltdown? $0. Those securities are a part of the public debt, ALL of which must be paid off as it matures. And some of it matures every month. Where does Treasury get the money? It borrows it. Sometimes, the same borrower is not just willing but anxious to take a new note in place of the old one. In other cases, the funds provided by a new investor are used to pay off an old one. We've been doing this through thick and thin since 1836. 10-year Treasuries closed today at the historically low yield of 3.72%. Ten years ago today, it was at 6.38%. We are not having any trouble finding people who are willing to buy our debt. What makes you think that YOU will have to buy it instead?
...once our health care system is reformed sufficiently to bring Medicare stability within reach, it will join Social Security as being among the most popular and successful social programs in history.
The stock market rose 52% during the year following the great depression, so I'm not sure your point..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
