Well these are not worse numbers than during the last administration.
Interestingly, the very last page of the report, the statement of actuarial opinion by the Chief Actuary of Social Security includes a long note as to why using budget accounting to justify cutting Social Security is bullshite.
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News like this should scare seniors like me shitless. I have neighbors on SS and Medicare whose main concern is āillegalsā ā code word for Mexicans here in Calif. How dumb can one get?
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Remove the payroll tax earnings cap. If there must be a regressive flat tax, make it apply to all income, not just the first $120,000ish or whatever it is.
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You mean Trump lied to us?
Quelle surprise.
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Why not all three at once?
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The money that was received in payroll taxes, but exceeded the amount that was needed to pay benefits went into the trust fund. The trust fund then lends that money to the rest of the government and holds on to the bonds (and the interest payments) until it costs exceeds tax revenue. The funds still exist as obligations of the federal government and since 2010 they have been used to help pay benefits (total interest payments from the trust fund exceeded the amount need to top off tax revenue to pay full benefits so the trust fund continued to growāuntil now.)
Shorter answer, the trust funds hold bonds that the government has, is and will make good on and those funds are used to pay benefits until roughly 2034.
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Maybe if those āillegalsā wore shirts that had the names of the retirees whose Social Security benefits they were funding, (like reverse NASCAR sponsorship), perceptions would change.
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No surprise here whatsoever. Cut taxes, hand all the money to the wealthy, starve the programs the middle-class and poor rely upon, claim the program needs to be cut, cut program to make middle-class smaller and the poor more dependent upon and obedient/beholden to their wealthy employers, rinse, repeat, profit.
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What are you talking about? No one takes money out of Social Security except that used for benefits and to run the place. The defense budget, whatever you think about it does not reduce by one iota the obligation of the government to pay off the bonds held by the trust fund.
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Except for fetuses, if they canāt be born then how will we know the second coming is here?
The fixes are relatively easy, but doesnāt fit the Republican world view of no immigration and no taxes on the rich. Prosperity gospel run amok where if youāre not worth a few million, God obviously doesnāt value you.
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You know what weād see in response? Wage cuts all across the country in order to offset the wealthiest Amurikkkansā tax increase. Thereās no fucking way that CEO is taking less than the net he planned on receiving from that bloated $400M salary deal he mad.
This dumb
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All I know is, tomorrow (well, maybe today - I turn 62 today) I become eligible for Social Security. Iām not retiring yet, but it would be nice to have something to look forward to.
There have been suspicions dating back to LBJ about the fund being raided, but the details are sketchy.
Ryan and his cronies have been trying to privatize this for years. They may succeed this year. Itās the only thing on the GOP agenda for completion this summer. Weāll see what happens.
ETA: And Iāve been saying for years that the cap on SS tax should be removed. It isnāt the execs that would be the issue; itās the corporations who also have to pay their share to the fund. They look forward to that day when they can reduce their payments so they can spend it on something worthwhile, like stock buybacks and executive pensions (ok, that was sarcasm, but itās what they do).
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</BlazingSaddles>
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This is why we must privatize Medicare and Social Security: because of the Democrat Partyās obstruction and failed Obama policies!
Is that pretty much the script?
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Yes. After all, weāve done all we can do. We cut taxes, and we cut taxes again, and we eliminated the mandate. Thereās nothing left but to privatize and cut services. Nothing at all.
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I detect a strong odor of mendacity in Mnuchinās statements.
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Thatās his favorite cologne.
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You left out: Rotten to the core