Social Security is Strong

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April 23, 2012

A new report on Monday by Social Security trustees showed the retirement program's trust fund has $2.7 trillion in reserves and will grow to $3.06 trillion by 2021, enough to maintain the unbroken record of paying every nickel owed to every beneficiary in full for another two decades. Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation to strengthen Social Security and guarantee benefits for 75 years by extending the payroll tax that most Americans already pay to those who earn above $250,000 a year.

"The most effective way to strengthen Social Security for the next 75 years is to eliminate the cap on the payroll tax on income above $250,000. Right now, someone who earns $110,100 pays the same amount of money into Social Security as a billionaire. That makes no sense," said Sanders, the chairman of the Defending Social Security Caucus. He also chairs the Senate aging subcommittee.

Defend Social Security Caucus

Under the proposed legislation, the wealthiest Americans would pay the same payroll tax rate already assessed on those with incomes up to $110,100 a year. Social Security officials have calculated that the simple change would keep the retirement program strong for another 75 years. The legislation also follows through on a proposal that President Barack Obama made in 2008 when he was running for president.

The Keeping Our Social Security Promises Act is cosponsored by Sens. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Barbara Mikulski, (D-Md.), Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D- R.I.).

Since it was signed into law 76 years ago, Social Security has kept millions of senior citizens, widows, widowers, orphans, and the disabled out of poverty. Before Social Security, about half of senior citizens lived in poverty. Today, less than 10 percent do.

"I strongly disagree with some of my colleagues who want to balance the budget by cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other programs that are of enormous importance to seniors and the working families of our country. There are ways to address the deficit crisis without attacking some of the most vulnerable members of our society. As chairman of the Defending Social Security Caucus, I will do everything in my power to make sure that the promises made to seniors will be kept."

Social Security provides support for 55 million people, including 38 million retired workers, 6 million widows, widowers and orphans, and 11 million disabled workers. The most successful government program in our nation's history has not contributed one dime to the federal deficit.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=F63D73C1-81DF-4DFB-AAC3-730092ED9406

Of course this will not stop all the lies about "entitlement" garbage and how it is using up the tax dollars.

Social Security with the exception of SSI federal welfare is not an entitlement nor was it ever. Medicaid, Tanf, GA, and child care are entitlements given out to the population withing certain income bracket. Those said income brackets are stressing the economy even further as more recieve benefits during these economical crisis situations. The good news is even though we are all poor right now, crime has dropped!!!

Again, we will dispel the lies early.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1258

I did not tell a lie!!

No, you just didn't know what you were talking about. Which is not a crime.

Where is the welfare and all that on the graph I so kindly provided? Showing where the federal tax dollars go. It is in the 4% listed as other.

Looks to me like it is in the 13% called "Safety net." Sounds like a lump-all phrase. And SS is not an entitlement, it's a ponzi scheme run by the government.

Okay, ummm yeah that's it

Anyone who thinks the gubment dudn't pilfur SS and use sum a dat munny on welfare is an idiot.

Oh yea, I expect that is right.

Anyway, still not a major drain on a tax dollar. Each program would be a mere 1% if that. And some of them are paid back by child support and other means.

I have heard the ponzi scheme thing from those who reject the idea of paying into a pool of money they may never access but I disagree as even workman's comp and unemployment are both the same. I paid into unemployment for many years and have never used it but I am glad the money helped others.

ITs interesting that as a culture we seem so pissed at spending for things like education or welfare but so amped up about spending on prisons and military/weapons,,,,

I just dont get how our priorities are so off whack,,,,

You can't tell me you don't know we are off-whack people!

The Social Security Trustees just issued their 2012 Report.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/tr/2012/index.html


A little summary of that report..

Lawmakers should not delay addressing the long-run financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare. If they take action sooner rather than later, more options and more time will be available to phase in changes so that the public has adequate time to prepare. Earlier action will also help elected officials minimize adverse impacts on vulnerable populations, including lower-income workers and people already dependent on program benefits.

Social Security and Medicare are the two largest federal programs, accounting for 36 percent of federal expenditures in fiscal year 2011. Both programs will experience cost growth substantially in excess of GDP growth in the coming decades due to aging of the population and, in the case of Medicare, growth in expenditures per beneficiary exceeding growth in per capita GDP. Through the mid-2030s, population aging caused by the large baby-boom generation entering retirement and lower-birth-rate generations entering employment will be the largest single factor causing costs to grow more rapidly than GDP. Thereafter, the primary factors will be population aging caused by increasing longevity and health care cost growth somewhat more rapid than GDP growth.

The deficit of non-interest income relative to expenditures was about $49 billion in 2010 and $45 billion in 2011, and the Trustees project that it will average about $66 billion between 2012 and 2018 before rising steeply as the economy slows after the recovery is complete and the number of beneficiaries continues to grow at a substantially faster rate than the number of covered workers.

Conclusion

Lawmakers should address the financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare as soon as possible. Taking action sooner rather than later will leave more options and more time available to phase in changes so that the public has adequate time to prepare.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/TRSUM/index.html

One has to ask the questions


Who Benefits from building Prisons and Military Weapons?

and

Who Benefits from spending on Education and Welfare?

Do you think that the wizard of oz just waves his magic wand and the all this military stuff just appears or would think that the million or so workers in the defense industry might benefit just a little from having a high paying job?

Or should we just eliminate their jobs and use that money to support them with welfare?

That seems to be your position..

My position is, if the military equipment is necessary then it remains. (750 American overseas bases not required)

Educating Americans is also necessary and should have an equal priority.

Both can and should be achieved.

The 2.3 TRILLION unaccounted for by the Pentagon comes to mind.

Another interesting "cut and paste".....



Zakheim Seeks To Corral, Reconcile 'Lost' Spending
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2002 -- As part of military transformation efforts, DoD Comptroller Dov S. Zakheim and his posse of accountants are riding the Pentagon's financial paper trail, seeking to corral billions of dollars in so-called "lost" expenditures.

For years, DoD and congressional officials have sought to reconcile defense financial documents to determine where billions in expenditures have gone. That money didn't fall down a hole, but is simply waiting to be accounted for, Zakheim said in a Feb. 14 interview with the American Forces Information Service. Complicating matters, he said, is that DoD has 674 different computerized accounting, logistics and personnel systems.

Most of the 674 systems "don't talk to one another unless somebody 'translates,'" he remarked. This situation, he added, makes it hard to reconcile financial data.

Billions of dollars of DoD taxpayer-provided money haven't disappeared, Zakheim said. "Missing" expenditures are often reconciled a bit later in the same way people balance their checkbooks every month. The bank closes out a month and sends its bank statement, he said. In the meanwhile, people write more checks, and so they have to reconcile their checkbook register and the statement.

DoD financial experts, Zakheim said, are making good progress reconciling the department's "lost" expenditures, trimming them from a prior estimated total of $2.3 trillion to $700 billion. And, he added, the amount continues to drop.

"We're getting it down and we are redesigning our systems so we'll go down from 600-odd systems to maybe 50," he explained.

"That way, we will give people not so much more money, but a comfort factor, to be sure that every last taxpayer penny is accounted for," he concluded.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2002/n02202002_200202201.html

nope, my position is that we are more than willing to spend on those jobs in the case we have to defend life but not willing to spend on the everyday reality of having to PREPARE our kids for their futures,,

so we just keep repeating backwards techniques of preparing for the worst as opposed to creating the best,,,

so those people that work in the defense industry didn't go to high school?

I know what you are saying.. You just aren't saying it..

How about we stop giving billions of dollars in foreign aid to other countries. Especially the ones that want to kill us. That seems kinda wacko to me.

huh

what did I say about high school?

be specific about what you think Im not saying,,,,,