Social Security Administration in trouble due to budget cuts

[hedgehog]

I guess one way to solve any shortage in the trust fund is to make it impossible to apply for benefits!

http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/socialsec/the_line_starts_here.html

[Name removed]

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[TahitiNut]

3. "pyramid scheme"?? Total, abject nonsense!

Every generation must rely, in some fashion, on the increased ability of the subsequent generation to earn a living and contribute to the "common weal."

The current Social Security system is indistinquishable from a family where the parents care for and education their children, affording them with the best life tools to earn a living and live a healthy, productive life. That's an "investment" that's far more rational, efficient, and effective than leveraging "ownership" to beat the slaves and consign labor to work the plantations.

"Third World" retirement is premised on having enough children that one (or two) might survive and thrive enough to give the parents a spare bedroom in return for cooking, baby-sitting, yard work, and house-cleaning. Fail to have enough children and parents die. Period.

Simple-minded idiots claim the parents should "save" and "invest" to create a "nest egg" (NOTE that metaphor!) for their "golden years." Excuse me? They should withhold that money from their kids? How much LESS should the parents spend for the education feeding, clothing, ahd health care for their kids in order to create that "nest egg" - which is a metaphor for having more kids???

The best thing that's happened for Social Security in the last 10 years is the recent increase in the minimum wage. As we destroy the "middle class" and the "bottom 90%" of income continues to decline as a share of total income in the nation, we're screwing retirees.

Social Security projections are like the proverbial canary in the coal mine. Those projections presume a continued decimation of the earning power of the bottom 90% and a continued disenfranchisement of working people in the economics of our society.

Investing in the education, health, and productivity of the next generation is the BEST investment!!

"Pyramid scheme"?? Total, utter BULLSHIT! That's an appallingly ignorant claim.

[dailykoff]

15. I wonder if they're counting all the workers with fake numbers

paying into the system with no hope of getting any benefits. By my estimation there are many hundreds of thousands, if not more. Somehow the SSA doesn't seem to want to "catch" them. Gee I wonder why not?

[TahitiNut]

16. Even a U.S. citizen is required to accumulate 40 quarters (ten years) of work to QUALIFY ...

... for Social Security benefits. As things currently stand "illegal aliens" working in the U.S. can, upon returning to their home country, apply under the Totalization Agreement with that country for crediting their FICA taxes to THAT country's social retirement system. There are MANY U.S. citizens who work and don't eventually benefit from their FICA (insurance) premiums ... ones who don't work 40 quarters and ones who doon't either become disabeld or who die before collecting benefits. My father was one such person.

But it's just like paying any kind of insurance. You don't get the premiums on your homeowner's insurance back if your house doesn't burn down ... and you don't get paid if you burn your own home down!

The perpetual myth that such workers are somehow getting screwed is baseless, imho. FICA is payment into a system that offers a safety net to the very workers who built the economy and country that now seems so attractive to others ... but not attractive enough that they comply with the laws, I guess. :shrug:

[dailykoff]

19. Interesting.

What I had in mind though are workers who come by fake SS numbers and get taxed for however many years they work in the US, until they either leave, die, or manage to get legal SS numbers.

I've talked to a couple of "illegals" who can't get citizenship for various reasons (it isn't easy) but use such numbers, and by their accounts there are many others. The SSA never seems to bust them though they live in fear of it and occasionally quit jobs for fear of being found out.

This seems like a gross injustice, and the fact that it's allowed to continue suggests that the entire immigration issue is just another way of screwing workers.

[Skink]

interesting thing near the top of that article about California....

the shortages during the California energy crisis were created by market manipulation.


BTW this is why we are in Iraq. There is to much crude on the market. We seek to manipulate the price.
Iraq is a strategic reserve for the multi national oil companies. At present that oil must stay put.

[terisan]

5. Peak Oil is a Managed Crisis. Intended beneficiary is Big Oil. Running out of oil? would be great

if true.

[Skink]

2. This is what Bush was elected for.

The one thing I like about Hillary is that she is not afraid to say the mess that has been created since 2000 has to be dealt with.

[papau]

4. The GOP compassionate conservatives have only fired 4,000 workers in 2 years from SS staff - the

tax cuts do need offsets -

and if you don't care about children's' health insurance, why should you care about old and/or disabled folks?

[backscatter712]

6. Starve The Beast rears its ugly head again.

Bush wants the SSA to be in trouble due to budget cuts. That's because he hates Social Security. He wants all those hare-brained "privatized Social Security" schemes instead, which are designed to steal all the money we've been paying into Social Security from every paycheck, and give it to their Wall Street criminal friends, to paraphrase George Carlin.

[Traveling_Home]

7. The Social Security Administration has ALL-WAYS been a ...

rogue agency ignoring judicial rulings and assuming that if you're disabled and apply for benefits you are trying to steal their money - not applying for an insurance benefit you have paid for over the years.

Read the GAO reports over the last 15 years about the SSA. Rogue Agency is one of the kinder terms.

Makes no difference who the Congress or Administration are - Repuke or Democratic - they are scum sucking bottom feeders.

Ask any disabled person who routinely deals with them.

Just my 2 cents

[OzarkDem]

8. A rather deceiving headline

They're not talking about the fund itself, but about budget for staffing the administration. No doubt its just one more move to try and kill Social Security.

Actually, I'm glad the DLC, GOP and surrogates are trying to push "reform" in the 2008 elections. Their "disconnect" with the American public has rendered them ignorant of their inability to sell SS reform. We don't have to run them off a policy cliff, they're doing it themselves.

[hedgehog]

10. I agree it is confusing but I couldn't think of a brief way to

differentiate between the trust fund and the administration. The fund comes form payroll taxes, the structure to distribute that fund , the administration, is paid for out of the general budget.

There are all kinds of scare stories about there being only 1 worker per retiree and Social Security being a pyramid scheme. Consider this. In 1900, there was about 1 farmer for every ten people. Today it's something like 1 for every hundred. The economy has changed. Today productivity is such that 1 worker can produce enough to support himself and a retiree. The money is only useful as long as there are goods and services to be exchanged. This economy produces plenty of goods to share around. IMO, Social Security is a limited wealth redistribution system.

[OzarkDem]

13. Sorry, didn't mean your headline

The AARP article headline seems a little deceiving and the timing is interesting. Is Newt Gingrich still involved in AARP?

[hedgehog]

14. I looked it up on the AARP web site after hearing bits of the

radio show this morning. My take on it is that the AARP is sending up a warning flare that Bush is undercutting Social Security by underfunding the administration. He can't touch the trust fund, he can't cut benefits, but he can sure make it hard to get at those benefits! The radio story pointed out that the Social Security offices are already overwhelmed and that this month the first baby boomers can apply for early retirement. Talk about a surge!

[Bitwit1234]

9. If administrations had not "stolen" SS monies to pay for OTHER

projects when they slashed taxes, and created loopholes, mostly for the rich, we would not be having a problem with Social security. Reagan was the worst offender for "borrowing" and not repaying these funds. His deep tax cuts and stupid financial programs is the cause of most of the problems with regular financing this country today. And bush worsened this with his war.

[dailykoff]

12. There's no problem with Social Security.

The cash is there in the form of Treasury Bills. The "problem" is repaying them, but that's not the SSA's problem.

[XOKCowboy]

17. I hate to bring up Al Gore but his "lockbox" proposal....

was pretty a pretty good plan. The Repugs hate FDRs ideas (even though they've been pretty successful) and are intent to get rid of them.

[Karenina]

18. HALLO!!! You're the first one to mention that

TINY DETAIL in the current maelstrom! :toast:

[dailykoff]

11. The SSA is postively floating in cash.

Much has apparently been loaned to the Treasury, but the notes are there, and it is one humongous cash cow. It will never be "in trouble" in the way suggested by this headline.

[Traveling_Home]

20. I tend to agree with you but .....

that doesn't mean that SSA isn't a rogue agency managed by scum sucking bottom feeders. ;-)