Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Post Info TOPIC: Social Security Fix


Newbie

Status: Offline
Posts: 1
Date:
Social Security Fix
Permalink  
 


Why is it so hard for politicians in DC to fix SS for future retirees?

Here are two simple suggestions:

-Raise the full retirement age to 70, phased in over 10 years. Early retirement should also be raised to 65. When SS was enacted in the 30s, life expectancy was 65; statistically you were dead before you could collect benefits. Today, recipients are living into their 80s and 90s, collecting benefits for up to 30 years. This was not the original intent.

-Tax the full wage base, as for Medicare. This step will silence the Liberals who lament that the rich don't pay their fair share of taxes. I don't think affected wage earners' lifestyles will be negatively impacted by taxing the full wage base.

 



__________________
Philip Franco


Newbie

Status: Offline
Posts: 2
Date:
Permalink  
 

Originally Social Security was capped at 1% of the first $1,000 of income and was not taxable when received. It is now 12.4% of the first $113,700 and at least partially taxed when received. This is a 1410 time fold increase plus any income tax paid. Additionally, SS is 20% of the Federal budget but 25% of Federal INCOME as it is now included in the Federal budget as general revenue, NOT dedicated to Social Security benefits. There is no need to increase the SS tax if the SS income would be allocated solely to benefit recipients.

__________________


Senior Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 324
Date:
Permalink  
 

@ Phil - why in the world do you want to reward the thieves in DC who have been stealing your SS money for 80 years by kicking the can down the road and screwing over the folks who have been paying in all their life ?

Age is NOT the problem sir, fiscal responsibility and integrity is the problem - do a little research on private retirement accounts that were allowed to compete with SS 30 years ago and which now payout more than twice the monthly amount as SS, because they were managed honestly

let me know if you need help finding the information and I will do it for you

and PLEASE, stop drinking the Koolaid 

 

philfranco wrote:

Why is it so hard for politicians in DC to fix SS for future retirees?

Here are two simple suggestions:

-Raise the full retirement age to 70, phased in over 10 years. Early retirement should also be raised to 65. When SS was enacted in the 30s, life expectancy was 65; statistically you were dead before you could collect benefits. Today, recipients are living into their 80s and 90s, collecting benefits for up to 30 years. This was not the original intent.

-Tax the full wage base, as for Medicare. This step will silence the Liberals who lament that the rich don't pay their fair share of taxes. I don't think affected wage earners' lifestyles will be negatively impacted by taxing the full wage base.

 


 



__________________

Old Retired guy living in Costa Rica and tracking the communists electronically - starting with the marxist in the whitehouse



Newbie

Status: Offline
Posts: 1
Date:
Permalink  
 

So your solution is to take even more of the worker's earnings.

 

"Every penny that a man earns rightly belongs to the government as a man can not earn a penny without the government.  And whatever the government deems a man should keep is generosity on the part of the government for which the man should be grateful." 



__________________


Newbie

Status: Offline
Posts: 2
Date:
Permalink  
 

I agree Philip's suggestion is just more can kicking. Taxing the full wage base is a very bad idea. Better to keep those dollars in production instead of flushing them to DC.

My suggestion is pretty close to AMAC's reform plan but I would frame it as: 1) Make current SS (or close to it) benefit a "floor" backed by the full faith and credit of the feds (may need other words here as this may not have much credibility.) 2) Offer private plans (similar to AMAC) to everyone. For youngsters allow them to opt out of at least 50% of current SS tax with the other 50% (+ the AMAC plan) to qualified accounts. The SS portion could be limited to government paper. The rest proportioned by age to "bonds" and equities as with traditional balanced allocation.

The "floor" approach would make the statist's objection to the insecurity of the "stock market" moot. The floor could be set a bit lower than the payout of a traditional one if someone opts out of the system. It would be highly unlikely that a managed account would every perform so poorly that a need to restore to the floor payment would be needed. That could be viewed as sold as it being highly likely that 50% of SS tax going to a private plan would pay out above 100% of the traditional plan.

The statist's will salivate over the government paper (fed, state, local) income stream and hopefully jump on board.

The 50% still paid as SS tax could be reduced (by formula in the original law - if that even means anything any more) once SS has made the transition from public to private accounts. I would guess it wouldn't go to 0% as there will always be those that cannot earn an income. But it should be made clear that this remaining % is a tax not associated with one's own retirement but to charity cases.



__________________
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.



Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse
Powered by ActiveBoard