Bush proposes overhaul of Social Security, Medicare

[still_one]

Source: Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush is proposing significant changes to Social Security and Medicare to keep the costly federal entitlement programs on solid financial footing.

Bush outlined his proposals on the website Medium.com on Tuesday, the day before the third Republican presidential debate, in Colorado.

Bush said he wants to gradually raise the retirement age for full benefits, adding one month each year, beginning in 2022 when the retirement age becomes 67 under current law. By 2034, the retirement age under his plan would be 68; by 2046 it would be 69. Currently, it's 66.

To encourage retirees to continue working, he would reduce benefits to those who want to retire early and increase benefits to those who work past their retirement age. He seeks to eliminate the $15,720 limit on income for working seniors already receiving Social Security. For those working beyond age 67, he proposes eliminating the 6.2 percent payroll tax.

Bush also said he would change the formula used to determine benefits by lowering monthly retirement checks to wealthier recipients. At the same time, he would increase to about $15,000 the minimum Social Security payment for people employed at least 30 years.

He also would lift the 10 percent limit employers can withhold from workers contributing to a 401(k) plan and help small businesses create those plans for employees.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/bush-proposes-overhaul-social-security-190720813.html

[liberal N proud]

1. Didn't the last bu$h try to steal Social Security too?

[Javaman]

2. rinse and repeat. nt

[randys1]

3. Dont know abut you but it dont bother me for one second a person who has never paid a bill

or worked a day in his life is gonna take food out of my mouth

not at all

[atreides1]

4. He said a lot

Except he said nothing about Congress paying back what it has taken out of Social Security!!!

[AzDar]

5. AzDar Proposes Bush Go Cheney Himself

[Kingofalldems]

6. Work til you die.

The GOP platform.

[Auggie]

7. Perfectly timed for the debate, of course

[PSPS]

8. Another attempt to change Social Security into a welfare program that can be eliminated.

Social Security is designed the way it is specifically because it isn't and was never intended to be a welfare program (i.e., means testing.) Once these crooks change it into one, it will become politically possible to eliminate it entirely.

[erlewyne]

9. I was saved by Social Security when I turned 62

I paid for it all my life, paid taxes, served overseas ...

I am living comfortably off social security now. Wasn't that the promise?

62 is old enough, not 65 or 67 or older!

Enough of this cutback bull ... a deal is a deal!

I paid social security in bootcamp in '67 and I was broke.
I paid social security ever since and never could afford
a new house or car. I am better off now than many 50 year-olds.

They are supposed to wait until they are 70?

[still_one]

15. and they have twisted the word entitlement. Specifically in this context it means

A government program guaranteeing access to some benefit that has been paid into"

It is an annuity that we have all been paying premiums into.

Not as some like to distort, a "give away".

Same with Medicare, we have been paying into that also, and depending on one's income and which supplemental plan that is chosen, the premiums still continue.

As was pointed out, the simplest solution is to raise the cap.

[Pakhet]

23. 71

I'm 51 now and my yearly social security statement says I can retire with the max payout at 71. I've been working for 35 years according to their records...I get tired just thinking about 20 more years answering phones

[erlewyne]

26. I feel that 50/25 should be the qualifer

Those years from 25 to 50 are full off stress and you are
always making payments. At 50 you should be more secure
and able to go out and enjoy ... and make a little "under the table"
because you have energy.

The money you spend after retirement pays taxes on about
everything you buy. Plus you have already paid into Social Security.

[JDPriestly]

10. Just raise the cap!

Solves the whole problem, and we might be able to reduce the payroll tax rate in the bargain.

Bush's "solutions" don't solve anything.

The real problem is that employers do not want to hire people in their late 50s and 60s in numbers great enough to keep those age groups employed.

It isn't that people don't want to work. It's that the jobs aren't there.

What world does Jeb Bush live in?

Certainly not the world of work.

And most people in their late 60s cannot work 8 hour days at McDonalds, take care of more than three children at a time on a full-time basis without succumbing to total exhaustion, drive and load and unload trucks, etc. The jobs people in their 60s can do just are not that plentiful any more.

Jeb's plan is unrealistic.

[still_one]

13. no, that is too obvious, and it would solve the problem

[BlueMTexpat]

16. Amen.

The simplest solution and the best!

[Alkene]

25. +1 n/t

[tabasco]

11. Flushin' it down the crapper ain't an overhaul, Jebster.

We know you and your fellow republicans are evil and want to destroy anything good for the people of America.

[turbinetree]

12. Maybe Mr. Jebby should read this article, because he is in a lot ways just like this................

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/10/28/ceo-retirement-packages-dwarf-employee-benefits/74681692/


All he has is a carrot and stick mentality, he wants to further the "MEANS TEST",

I mean I wish there was silver spoon "emoji" in the box because this guy is nothing more than silver spoon



Honk----------------for a political revolution Bernie 2016

[chapdrum]

14. A special "eff you" to Associated Press

for this: "...Jeb Bush is proposing significant changes to Social Security and Medicare to keep the costly federal entitlement programs on solid financial footing. ..."

Yet again, editorializing in reportage.

AS IF Jeb! or ANY of his deranged family gives a rat's arse about ANYTHING AT ALL except his and their personal aggrandizement.

The mere fact that he and they are continually taken seriously does not speak well for our country.

[appal_jack]

28. Hear hear!

I was ready to make this exact point, but you said it so well, I'll just add my hearty agreement and one more thing: Jeb Bush is a spoiled, soiled asswipe. People proposing to steal Social Security from working Americans are not interested in "solid financial footing" for anyone except greedy Wall St. Criminals. Scrap the cap on the payroll tax and preserve one of the best social programs in American history is the proper answer to the SS 'crisis.'



-app

[7962]

17. No mention of raising the cap. I guess he didnt want to upset Grover! nt

[lark]

18. Wrong, wrong, wrong and let me say wrong!

WTF, why would he want to incentivize people to continue working, preventing a younger person from getting a job. That's just insane. It makes way more sense to let people retire even earlier, with a slightly smaller mo. income. Who is more likely to work this long, doctors and people that own their own companies, in other words, the 1%. We don't need to encourage this, just the opposite. Raising the retirement age also is really bad for people who do manual labor. Yeah, it wouldn't hurt politicians but it would a roofer, for example. Lowering the retirement checks for wealthy beneficiary's would also explode in our faces. Once the rich don't benefit, you know SS and Medicare would be so demonized and cut to death if not just flat ended altogether.

Of course, he doesn't suggest the one thing that would fix these. Medicare for all and the cap removed from social security taxes so income levels were included. No repug would ever suggest those because 1 - it would benefit the working class, 2 - the rich might actually have to pay their way.

[Pakhet]

24. slightly smaller income?

By the SSA mailout I get each year, if I work another 20 years (until I'm 71) I will receive the princely sum of $1500 a month. that's less than I make now and I can barely afford now.

[lark]

27. I feel you

Most of my friends retired at 60 or 62, but here I am 63-1/2 and still working because I can't afford to retire yet. However, everyone isn't like us. Some people would retire at, say 55, if allowed and they could collect a smaller than normal amount. Why not let them and free up jobs for younger people?

[hollysmom]

19. it is already set to rise to 67 for people born 1960 or later

it was 66 for me. I took it at 62 because of math and when people in my family die (not too long for now)

[Hoppy]

20. Nothing about eliminating the cap on contributions?

[wolfie001]

21. Cruel bastard!!!

Never got dirt under those fingernails. What a jackass! Must be a repuke.....

[mdbl]

22. So sick of SS being called an entitlement

But if they must use that word, and people are entitled, why do A-holes like Bush keep trying to take it away? Of course that question was completely rhetorical. I know it is so the rich can get richer and poor poorer. That would be the end result. As Mike Malloy says, "did I say tonight how much I hate these people?"