Ray From Cleveland
Diamond Member
- Aug 16, 2015
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1. Raising the retirement ages one year is a no-brainer. From 62 to 63 and 65 to 66. If someone has a strenuous job, find an easier one.You're looking at it way too idealistically. Here are the cold-hard "facts":Dude, how much of that debt you are talking about is owed to social security?
Your ignorance of the fact that spending too much money on the federal government is another issue just shows how much of a moron you are.
Dude, Unfunded Liability as of 7/24/2020 of Social Security and Medicare.
I usually separate the social security issue from the unfunded liability issue, as SS is the one with the supposed "Trust Fund" that is nothing more than a bunch of IOU's.
SS will be insolvent in 2037. Medicare will be bankrupt in 2026.
Both programs are "fixable". All that needs to happen are a few tweaks. Lets say that Trump wants a temporary payroll tax cut. So the democrats want SS & Medicare "fixed". Lets make a win-win. Trump get a few months of the payroll tax cut, and the democrats get SS & Medicare fixed.
Here are the various fixes to consider:
Social Security fixes:
https://www.fool.com/retirement/2018/05/21/how-warren-buffett-thinks-we-should-fix-social-sec.aspx
https://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/planning-to-retire/2014/11/14/5-potential-social-security-fixes
https://www.aarp.org/work/social-security/info-05-2012/future-of-social-security-proposals.html
Medicare Fixes:
https://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2016/03/27/7-ways-to-fix-medicare.aspx
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/369151-fix-what-weve-got-and-make-medicare-right-this-year
https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/how-to-save-and-fix-medicare
https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/health/medicare-and-medicaid/2012-05/The-Future-Of-Medicare.pdf
The problem with raising the cap is that there will still be a cap on benefits, and thus the original pretext of this not being about the rich supporting the poor, but the working supporting the not working goes away.
I read your post 10x and still don't get what you're point is?!
1. Raising the cap on tax means more revenue
2. Not raising the cap on benefits means everyone gets a similar "pension", subject to income tax brackets.
No work means no SS.
SS was built on the basis of "the more you pay in, the more benefits you get up until a point". It's why the cap is there in the first place. It wasn't sold as a progressive income distribution program, but as a scaling retirement "pension".
If you raise the cap on what you put in, and keep a cap on what you can take out later, you basically destroy the concept upon which SS was sold to us at the time of creation. It just becomes another progressive "tax".
1. SS will be insolvent in 2037, paying only 70% of promised benefits.....forever
2. Unless SS is "fixed" one way or another, that's what happens.
3. So pick your preferred "fix", raise the cap, raise the retirement ages, raise the tax rate, tax benefits (means test), or something else or any combination that works.
Who gives a fuck how it was created 80-years ago?? We all paid into it and are promised benefits. The government needs to provide those promised benefits.
Raising the retirement age doesn't work based on the type of job you had. You can't ask a roofer to be climbing up ladders three stories with a 30 lbs pack of roof shingles when he's 68 years old. Or a bricklayers laborer. Or perhaps a carpenter or remodeler.
Of course the problem can be fixed. Simply take a huge increase on payroll deductions for SS and Medicare. So why won't they do it? For one, political suicide. We all want the goodies, but don't want to pay for them. Two, the working public would then demand an end to these programs because of the expense. Democrat would never allow themselves to be put in that position.
2. Political suicide is NOT fixing SS and Medicare.
3. No one will demand an end to SS & Medicare. They worked well for 80-years, and will work well for another 80.
Not at this rate it won't. The programs are running out of money.
If you were the President or a member of Congress, what do you think your chances would be of winning reelection of you increased SS payroll deductions by 20%? Think people wouldn't be pissed off at you and vote you out next election? This is why politicians don't do it.
What you are suggesting is that nobody take a strenuous job because of their fear of retirement age? Then who is going put a roof on your home? Who is going to rebuild that retaining wall in your backyard that's falling apart? Who is going to build you that garage you wanted if nobody will get into these fields of work any longer because they won't be able to do it at an older age?
And we already did raise the retirement age, and it's still not doing any good. I'm 60, and they have my retirement age set at 67. Now they are talking about raising it even more. It's not a solution to anything.