Hot Topic: Social Security

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Right away,the new house majority declares their intention to cut Social Security and Medicare.How are us poor folks going to survive?
I dunno why they bother. Seems like they always announce this when they get a majority. It won't happen. I doubt this proposal will even make it out of the house. But if it does, it won't make it out of the senate, and the president sure as hell wouldn't sign it.
 
Right away,the new house majority declares their intention to cut Social Security and Medicare.How are us poor folks going to survive?
I read about this too. Supposedly for anyone currently on Social Security or Medicare there will be no reduction in benefits. Only for new cases.

I didn't read the actual text of the bill, just a synopsis of what is planned, so take everything with a grain of salt... ;) or maybe a spoon of salt would be better.
 
Right away,the new house majority declares their intention to cut Social Security and Medicare.How are us poor folks going to survive?
they'll only do that if we workers allow it! they also would like to privatize it which would be a disaster and hopefully
we'll never see that happen either...
 
I read about this too. Supposedly for anyone currently on Social Security or Medicare there will be no reduction in benefits. Only for new cases.

I didn't read the actual text of the bill, just a synopsis of what is planned, so take everything with a grain of salt... ;) or maybe a spoon of salt would be better.
My kids have been paying into it too. They have a need for it too. I don't want them to not be able to use when their time to comes and it is getting close to that time.
 
My kids have been paying into it too. They have a need for it too. I don't want them to not be able to use when their time to comes and it is getting close to that time.
I wish we could just call shenanigans on all politicians...
 
Right away,the new house majority declares their intention to cut Social Security and Medicare.How are us poor folks going to survive?
Thankfully, it has to be approved by the Senate then signed into law by the president. Not sure why the Republicans keep shooting themselves in the foot. The majority of the country is poor. If they ever want to get re-elected, they need to stop saying social programs that the majority of workers paid into their entire working lives are an "entitlement". I can see maybe they had a point if wealthy people were not capped at $130k a year, or whatever it is now.
 
In about 10 years social security will go bankrupt. Politicians have been kicking this can down the road for at least 30 years. None of the solutions will be politically popular. At least someone is acknowledging the problem and proposing a fix (its a bandaid). All industrialized nations are having the same problem.
 
In about 10 years social security will go bankrupt. Politicians have been kicking this can down the road for at least 30 years. None of the solutions will be politically popular. At least someone is acknowledging the problem and proposing a fix (its a bandaid). All industrialized nations are having the same problem.
propaganda Spiff. a 1-2% increase in the tax, plus making EVERYONE pay their share without the cap on the wealthy will fix it! our retirement system sux compared to many other industrialized democracies as we have a replacement rate of 30-40% of our working income while many have 70-80% replacement rate :(
 
I moved these comments from the chat about anything thread. Since this is a topic of interest to many of us, the moderators are allowing the discussion to continue. Please avoid arguing or attacking any political party. We will have to close the thread if this happens.
 
Right away,the new house majority declares their intention to cut Social Security and Medicare.How are us poor folks going to survive?
Before addressing this topic, let me recommend New Heights which features brothers Jason and Travis Kelce, who share as much about growing up and life as about football.
Many pundits have said that the House will require cuts to Medicare and/or Social Security as a condition for raising the debt ceiling. The Senate or the President could prevent this but potentially at the cost of shutting down the government and causing the nation to default. The damage of defaulting will not be clear for a decade IMHO.
 
It is a lie that the SS system is going broke. Congress has been "borrowing" from the fund without paying it back. No increase is withholding have been applied for decades and the wealthy no longer pay a fair share of their income.

The SSI issue is fear-mongering.
 
The SSI issue is fear-mongering.
I don't understand this comment; what is the "SSI issue"?
Congress has the power to end or modify social security or medicare. I hope they leave it alone or strengthen it. I think many politicians on both sides of the aisle support these programs and (those who support social security and medicare) deserve our support.
 
I don’t think most people are educated enough or knowledgeable enough about the issue to discuss it. I know I’m not. I have always had a hard time accepting social programs even though I and many others benefit from them. Growing up and coming from a tight knit community in an area where most of the rest of the country wanted to forget or avoid acknowledging the problems of education, poverty and aging. In many counties in the area Schools and the Railroad were the largest employers and both of those did not participate in Social Security. The industries we had didn’t tend to promote a healthy lifestyle, not a lot of old coal miners or blast furnace steel workers lived to reach much over 65 years of age. Social Security only helped a few and because of low wages very little but was a big help to them. When an old person could no longer plant a garden it was a sign they were not long for this world. Military service was for many the only way to get an education and “escape” a life of poverty on a few acres of land you could farm to supplement low wages paying job and survive. I was surprised to see what other parts of the country had to offer and what other countries, even with less resources, offer their citizens which I did after joining the military. Hope this thread makes me and the others that read this more knowledgeable and informed so we can help improve our country’s social programs through our democratic system. Thank you for letting this thread continue a while longer.
 
I don’t think most people are educated enough or knowledgeable enough about the issue to discuss it. I know I’m not. I have always had a hard time accepting social programs even though I and many others benefit from them. Growing up and coming from a tight knit community in an area where most of the rest of the country wanted to forget or avoid acknowledging the problems of education, poverty and aging. In many counties in the area Schools and the Railroad were the largest employers and both of those did not participate in Social Security. The industries we had didn’t tend to promote a healthy lifestyle, not a lot of old coal miners or blast furnace steel workers lived to reach much over 65 years of age. Social Security only helped a few and because of low wages very little but was a big help to them. When an old person could no longer plant a garden it was a sign they were not long for this world. Military service was for many the only way to get an education and “escape” a life of poverty on a few acres of land you could farm to supplement low wages paying job and survive. I was surprised to see what other parts of the country had to offer and what other countries, even with less resources, offer their citizens which I did after joining the military. Hope this thread makes me and the others that read this more knowledgeable and informed so we can help improve our country’s social programs through our democratic system. Thank you for letting this thread continue a while longer.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I think that the quote should be updated to reflect that it's humans who have trouble changing with the times. :)
 
what is the "SSI issue"?
The bellowing and shouting from some in Washington that they want to defund Social Security Insurance. They claim it is going broke, but they aren't telling the whole story... they are using fear and lies in order to get rid of the program. Why? Because the rich do not like paying it at all, and employers do not want to have to match the funds their employees put into the fund. It comes down to greed. The rich never have enough money and so they want to privatize education and eliminate SSI, because there is a lot of money to be tapped there. That is the SSI issue and the subject of this thread. :D
 
I know this smacks of anti-capitalism, but the rich don't want to pay for wage slaves that are no longer productive and an uneducated populace can be taken advantage of. Some call SSI socialism. Entitlements. Public social programs like education and retirement are signs of an enlightened society. Wanting to rid the country if those programs so the rich can get richer is the sign of a morally corrupt country. There is nothing wrong with following the US Constitution or the Bill of Rights. But there is a profound issue when capitalists and corporations control our government.
 
SS is not going broke. It existed for 50 years on a pay as you go basis, in the 80s they doubled the revenue to bring in more than they were paying out in order to create a trust fund big enough to get it over the "baby boomer bulge". The trust fund built up to over $1.7 trillion. That makes SS the most soundly funded government program on the planet, in all of history. The trust fund is intended to be spent down during the boomer retirement years. When it runs out benefits will either have to be reduced by about 25% or revenues increased. Neither has to be done now because SS is well funded.

SS revenues and the trust fund are separate from the rest of government spending. It does not add to the deficits or count in surpluses. When politicians claim it does they are bald-face lying.

The trust fund is by law held in only US Treasury bonds - the safest most secure investment on the planet. This pisses the Wizards of Wall Street off because they want to play with the trust fund instead of it being held safely out of their hands so they can't piss it away like they did with everything else in 2008. That is why they and their trolls have been pushing the fake narrative of SS going broke ever since the 80s when Reagan created the Trust Fund and kept it out of their filthy paws.
 
People tend to avoid dealing with the real problems. There is no real good reason or logical explanation why anyone of any age should be without basic shelter, food, health and education in a country with the resources of the United States. I imagine it actually costs much more to deal with the resulting problems than to have dealt with the original problem which in my opinion is a lack of motivation and education. There are a lot of poor people and a lot of older people in this country, more every day, as well as a lot of young people wanting an education and a job that provides at least basic needs. Voting for people that do those things that better your life like Social Security, Medicare, Educational loan forgiveness and Veterans programs with increased benefits should be a “no brainer” in my opinion. Educating yourself to insure you understand who is doing that for you is difficult for many it seems.
 
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