COMMENTS

izoneguy

But he would have a big megaphone to spread the word.
Spartan4Life

My generation has been paying this bill for the last 40 years. We’re sick of it. All I think about now is turning over a better country to my kids. And all the other boomers I know feel the same way.

rightwingmom52

If I could have opted out of Social Security at any time, I would have. As it is, my husband and I don’t expect to get a dime of what we’ve paid for the last 30+ years. My husband has been smart enough and we’ve been fortunate enough to save for our retirement, but when the government confiscates a good chunk of your paycheck, not everybody is able to do that, and I don’t expect those people to give up with getting some of their own money back. I’m totally in favor of a means test and raising the retirement age in order to help secure the future for my son and our country.

Spartan4Life

…on moral grounds. My view is that SS has been has been legalized theft. If you let Congress get away with it by stealing more of your money through means testing and raising the retirement age than they are not held accountable for their crime.

A better option in my opinion is simply to fix benefits at current levels. No increases ever for any reason. That won’t hurt current beneficiaries that bad and over time people can adjust their expectations as SS becomes a smaller and smaller portion of their retirement finances.

Look, private companies like the one I work for have already dealt with this problem. My company shifted from a defined benefit pension to a 401K program 20 years ago. Congress doesn’t want to do it because then they don’t own you. Also, they need current employees to pay for the beneficiaries because they squandered the so called trust fund. The bottom line is that it is a bloody mess but don’t buy the BS that means testing and letting them keep your money even longer are the only way out of it. It just takes some courage and leadership.
rightwingmom52

I think the entire theft should be shut down with some vehicle for at least partially taking care of those who have already “paid” into it, thus the means test & retirement age to phase it out. But I could get on board with ripping the band-aid off all at once.

bushhog

to clarify to the public that there is money to pay our mandatory expenses — and that the President is the one making the choice to penalize seniors, the military, etc. He IS the one shooting the hostages!
Brian Darling

On March 1, 2011, the Senate tabled (i.e. killed) the “Full Faith and Credit Act”on a party line vote. Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and David Vitter (R-LA) offered the legislation as an amendment to legislation reforming Patent law. That amendment would have prioritized debt of the US government if we hit the debt limit to (1) principal and interest on the debt; and, (2) social security benefits. These two items would have been prioritized over other debts.
Don’t believe the talking point that Republicans are trying to defund Social Security when it was Democrats who blocked legislation that would have put social security in a postion to be fully funded if the debt limit is not increased on Aug 2nd.
Here is the vote – http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=1&vote=00028

acat

Thank you, Brian! This talking point needs to be brough up every time someone, regardless of which side they’re on, says that “a default will hurt SS”.

Mew

msctex

A properly constructed TV ad or even a decent speech could bring this to light as what it is: nothing less than a plot, perpetrated by people with every reason to believe they can get away with lying to all our faces, while wringing their hands about the fates of the very people whose funds they would cut off.

(I know it is just semantics, Mew, but good god — this beggars belief.)

wolfster38

Government workers will be paid, the Senate the House, obama will be paid but not Granny, no it seems like they are being nudged into a cat food diet by the Prez.

http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

Raman Pride Noodles are 10c per package.

wolfster38

More Protein in cat food I think. Maybe we should ask the First Lady which is better.

http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

You just tried to get a juge who is totally catty.

aesthete

We’re going to need to reform Social Security in the near future if we want to have a solvent government — that will probably mean that we’ll need to raise the age at which benefits are received by pensioners. Defense + entitlement programs + debt make up about 80% of the deficit — you’re crazy if you think that a debt that stands at roughly 96% of GDP, and a level of government spending more than double that of the level of taxation, will be reduced, much less brought back to historical norms, by cutting discretionary spending. It’s better and more accurate to say that Obama is unneccessarily putting old people and the military on the chopping block first, in order to cynically make the tough, adult decisions even tougher than they will already be. Talking points like the one that you make above are going to backfire on us when we point out that entitlements need to be pared back, just as our pro-MediCare talking points during the ObamaCare debate did.

ALL