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Post by lakhota on Jun 7, 2011 17:44:53 GMT -5
Republican leaders left Social Security untouched in their House budget this year, but a group of GOP lawmakers are looking to fill the gap themselves with legislation that would create a voluntary privatized version of the program. Introduced by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), who also chairs the House's campaign efforts at the NRCC, the "Savings Account For Every American Act" would allow people to immediately opt out of Social Security in favor of a private "S.A.F.E." account. Eventually the program would expand to let employers send their matching contribution to workers' Social Security to a "S.A.F.E." account as well. "Our nation's Social Security Trust Fund is depleting at an alarming rate, and failure to implement immediate reforms endangers the ability of Americans to plan for their retirement with the options and certainty they deserve," Sessions said of the plan, according to The Hill. "To simply maintain the status quo would weaken American competitiveness by adding more unsustainable debt and insolvent entitlements to our economy when we can least afford it." Republicans have been wary of wading back into Social Security privatization after a major push on the issue during President Bush's second term failed to reach a vote in either the House or Senate despite there being a Republican Congress. One Freshman Representative who suggested the federal government could be rolled back to just four departments even listed protecting Social Security from privatization as one of his top causes on the 2010 trail. Among the GOP presidential candidates, Rick Santorum had tried to adopt the cause as part of his platform. tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/house-republicans-look-to-privatize-social-security.php?ref=fpb
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Jun 7, 2011 17:55:36 GMT -5
Considering SS has 10s of trillions in unfunded liabilities in the near future, it needs to be looked at.... full retirement age raised significantly, etc.
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❤ mollymouser ❤
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Post by ❤ mollymouser ❤ on Jun 7, 2011 18:00:30 GMT -5
I think most agree that something needs to be done about Social Security. Whether this is the best solution ... only time and analysis will tell.
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Post by cme1201 on Jun 7, 2011 18:05:58 GMT -5
Bump one thread on this topic and start a new one, your good.
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Post by lakhota on Jun 7, 2011 18:07:37 GMT -5
Bump one thread on this topic and start a new one, your good. I believe the "other" thread deals with Medicare. Do you know the difference?
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Jun 7, 2011 18:09:37 GMT -5
I believe the "other" thread deals with Medicare. Do you know the difference?
No difference. Both are govt run boondoggles, that keep the ignorant masses mired in poverty. And both programs are bankrupt with 100s of trillions in unfunded liabilities.
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Post by lakhota on Jun 7, 2011 18:13:57 GMT -5
I believe the "other" thread deals with Medicare. Do you know the difference? No difference. Both are govt run boondoggles, that keep the ignorant masses mired in poverty. And both programs are bankrupt with 100s of trillions in unfunded liabilities. Wow, a nasty disposition and zero facts. Quite a combination...
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cme1201
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Post by cme1201 on Jun 7, 2011 18:14:56 GMT -5
Lahkota,
I know the difference, are you Benjy Sarlin? Because you have offered no opinion on anything you post except someone's article. If I wanted to read the news, I would go to a news site, I come to a forum to get peoples opinions not reporters opinions. Do you want to discuss something? If you do have something lay it out, what you (not what the article says) believe and think not what the opinion writers of article tells you to say.
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Jun 7, 2011 18:17:23 GMT -5
SS and Medicare Unfunded Liabilities, 2008 www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27725258/page/2/ Even when all that debt is paid off, your generation will likely face another big debt problem. Remember the money that the government has set aside for Social Security and Medicare benefits? It’s not going to be nearly enough to pay the bills for those of us who will be relying on Social Security to pay for retirement and on Medicare to take care of us when we get old and sick. There are various estimates out there. The government’s own accountants at the GAO figure it will take another $40 trillion. Earlier this year, Richard Fisher, the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve, gave a speech in which he figured Social Security will need another $13.6 trillion to cover retirement checks to people like me. Medicare will need something like $85.6 trillion to pay our medical bills.
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Post by lakhota on Jun 7, 2011 18:17:37 GMT -5
What is there to discuss about Republicans wanting to kill Social Security and Medicare?
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Jun 7, 2011 18:18:07 GMT -5
Social Security and Medicare finances worsen Recession hurts latest forecast for two biggest benefit programs www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30698248May 12, 2009 WASHINGTON - The financial health of Social Security and Medicare, the government's two biggest benefit programs, have worsened because of the severe recession, and Medicare is now paying out more than it receives. Trustees of the programs said Tuesday that Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2016, one year sooner than projected last year, and the giant trust fund will be depleted by 2037, four years sooner. Medicare is in even worse shape. The trustees said the program for hospital expenses will pay out more in benefits than it collects this year and will be insolvent by 2017, two years earlier than the date projected in last year's report. The trust funds — which exist in paper form in a filing cabinet in Parkersburg, W.Va. — are bonds that are backed by the government's "full faith and credit" but not by any actual assets. That money has been spent over the years to fund other parts of government. To redeem the trust fund bonds, the government would have to borrow in public debt markets or raise taxes. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the head of the trustees group, said the new reports were a reminder that "the longer we wait to address the long-term solvency of Medicare and Social Security, the sooner those challenges will be upon us and the harder the options will be." Geithner said that President Barack Obama was committed to working with Congress to find ways to control runaway growth in both public and private health care expenditures, noting the promise Monday by major health care providers to trim costs by $2 trillion over the next decade. However, Republicans pointed to the newly dire assessments as evidence the Obama administration has failed to come forward with actual entitlement reform to close the funding gaps. Government-run health insurance? "Instead of getting existing public programs in order right now, some are saying we should create a new government-run health insurance plan," Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, said in a reference to the administration's health care proposals. "When we can't afford the public health plan we have already, does it make sense to add more?" House Republican leader John Boehner said the trustees report "confirms what we already knew: Our nation cannot afford to continue this reckless borrowing and spending spree." The findings in the trustees report, the annual checkup given the two benefit programs, did not come as a surprise. Private economists had been predicting that the dates the programs would begin to pay out more than they take in and the dates the trust funds would be insolvent would occur sooner given the economic recession. The deep recession, the worst the country has endured in decades, has resulted in a loss of 5.7 million jobs since it began in December 2007. The unemployment rate hit a 25-year high of 8.9 percent in April. Fewer people working means less being paid into the trust funds for Social Security and Medicare. The Congressional Budget Office recently projected that Social Security will collect just $3 billion more in 2010 than it will pay out in benefits. A year ago, the CBO had projected that Social Security would have a much higher $86 billion cash surplus for the 2010 budget year, which begins Oct. 1. The trustees report projected that Social Security's annual surpluses would "fall sharply this year," then remain at a reduced level in 2010 and be lower in the following years than last year's projections. The report said that the Social Security annual surplus would be eliminated entirely in 2016, reflecting increased demands from the wave of 78 million baby boomers retiring. That means Social Security will have to turn to its trust fund to make up the difference between Social Security taxes and the benefits being paid out beginning in 2016. The trustees projected the trust fund would be depleted in 2037, four years earlier than the 2041 date in last year's report. At that point, the annual Social Security taxes collected would be enough to pay for three-fourths of current benefits through 2083. To tap the trust fund, the government would have to increase borrowing or raise taxes because Social Security bonds exist only as bookkeeping entries. Government obligation While the government is obligated to redeem those bonds, it has already spent the excess Social Security collections over the years to fund general government operations, providing the trust funds with IOUs. While the smaller surpluses that will begin this year will not have any impact on Social Security benefit payments, the government will need to borrow more at a time when the federal deficit is already exploding because of the recession and the billions of dollars being spent to prop up a shaky banking system. Medicare's condition is more precarious, reflecting the pressures from soaring health care costs as well as the drop in tax collections. Obama on Monday praised the pledge by the health care industry to achieve $2 trillion in savings on health care costs over the next decade, but it was unclear how much help those pledges would be in achieving Obama's goal of extending coverage to some 50 million uninsured Americans. The administration is pushing Congress to pass legislation in this area this year, preferring to tackle health care before Social Security. The trustees report is likely to set off renewed debate over Social Security and Medicare. Critics have charged that the Obama administration has failed to tackle the most serious problems in the budget — soaring entitlement spending. The administration on Monday revised its federal deficit forecasts upward to project an imbalance this year of $1.84 trillion, four times last year's record, and said the deficits will remain above $500 billion every year over the next decade. Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Jun 7, 2011 18:19:25 GMT -5
What is there to discuss about Republicans wanting to kill Social Security and Medicare?
This also prompts a discussion that both programs are already bankrupt and facing 100s of trillions in liabilities.
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Post by lakhota on Jun 7, 2011 18:20:03 GMT -5
We need Single Payer to save Medicare, but Republicans won't even consider a Public Option. How do you reason with people like that - who are bought and paid for by their corporate masters?
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Post by cme1201 on Jun 7, 2011 18:20:23 GMT -5
What is there to discuss about Republicans wanting to kill Social Security and Medicare? Then if there is nothing to discuss why post a topic that you are obviously not interested in.
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Jun 7, 2011 18:20:58 GMT -5
We need Single Payer to save Medicare, but Republicans won't even consider a Public Option? How do you reason with people like that - who are bought and paid for by their corporate masters?
Sure. How will you fund it? There is not even enough wealth in the US to cover these liabilities.
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Post by cme1201 on Jun 7, 2011 18:21:41 GMT -5
We need Single Payer to save Medicare, but Republicans won't even consider a Public Option. How do you reason with people like that - who are bought and paid for by their corporate masters? Sure one side only is bought and paid for. Which fantasy world do you live in.
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hello fromWarsaw
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Post by hello fromWarsaw on Jun 7, 2011 18:25:58 GMT -5
Go Pubs!! Obama 60%, Palin 40% ;D
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Post by lakhota on Jun 7, 2011 18:26:15 GMT -5
What is there to discuss about Republicans wanting to kill Social Security and Medicare? This also prompts a discussion that both programs are already bankrupt and facing 100s of trillions in liabilities. Social Security says it isn't broke. Where do you get your information?
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Post by EVT1 on Jun 7, 2011 19:34:45 GMT -5
We need Single Payer to save Medicare, but Republicans won't even consider a Public Option? How do you reason with people like that - who are bought and paid for by their corporate masters? Sure. How will you fund it? There is not even enough wealth in the US to cover these liabilities. Way off in the weeds today. Single payer absolutely fixes the looming Medicare/Medicaid problem.
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Post by cme1201 on Jun 7, 2011 19:42:41 GMT -5
We need Single Payer to save Medicare, but Republicans won't even consider a Public Option? How do you reason with people like that - who are bought and paid for by their corporate masters? Sure. How will you fund it? There is not even enough wealth in the US to cover these liabilities. Way off in the weeds today. Single payer absolutely fixes the looming Medicare/Medicaid problem. Again I ask How?
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Post by vonnie6200 on Jun 7, 2011 19:44:00 GMT -5
#12
What are corporate masters? And why do you assume we all have them?
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hello fromWarsaw
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Post by hello fromWarsaw on Jun 7, 2011 19:45:47 GMT -5
Yup, the Dems are bought off by working people, people on welfare, and the sick. Pubs are NOT bought off by greedy rich and screw the workers, polluting corporations...gotcha! ;D
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Post by formerexpat on Jun 7, 2011 19:45:59 GMT -5
Give me the list of those that want to privatize SS. I'll make sure I vote for them in the next election.
No way Dems would agree to this; they'd have to first admit that the system is a failed ponzi scheme that is back door welfare.
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Post by lakhota on Jun 7, 2011 19:48:53 GMT -5
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Post by vonnie6200 on Jun 7, 2011 19:50:11 GMT -5
Yup, the Dems are bought off by working people, people on welfare, and the sick. Pubs are NOT bought off by greedy rich and screw the workers, polluting corporations...gotcha! ;D Now you finally admit it! ;D
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hello fromWarsaw
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Post by hello fromWarsaw on Jun 7, 2011 19:50:31 GMT -5
If you vote pub, you have corporate masters- you just don't know it. You believe their mytholgy and blame the victims...
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Post by vonnie6200 on Jun 7, 2011 19:54:25 GMT -5
If you vote pub, you have corporate masters- you just don't know it. You believe their mytholgy and blame the victims... No I know better - I actually achieved the "American Dream"
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hello fromWarsaw
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Post by hello fromWarsaw on Jun 7, 2011 19:55:26 GMT -5
Go Pubs!! Obama 60%, Palin 40%
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hello fromWarsaw
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Post by hello fromWarsaw on Jun 7, 2011 19:58:00 GMT -5
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Post by vonnie6200 on Jun 7, 2011 19:59:08 GMT -5
You're a perfect example, Vonnie. Please explain
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