Obama, Keep Your Hands off Social Security

Such hypocrisy in this thread. When Majority of America wants something, say, NO to gay marriage or say, NO to the Obama Healthcare plan, it's the Majority who is at fault.

However, when the Majority wants something like this, and the officials say no, it's the officials' fault.

Which is it, people?

But in the meantime...yeah...let's keep rebuilding countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. Let's keep handing out billions to foreign banks.

Notice how these SOB's aren't going to cut their own DAMN BENEFITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They don't care...they are set for life!!!

The elderly have paid into this system their entire life....they deserve what they paid...many are barely hanging by a thread as it is for cripes sake.

The politicians who have stolen money out of social security should be held liable....not the ones who have paid their hard earned money for 45 years for help in retirement.

I swear some of the people here don't have a soul.

Those who PAID into the Social Security system should be entitled to whatever they put in out of their darn hard work. Whoever didn't put a damn dime or penny into the SS system, shouldn't get squat! What happened to those who died before "maxing out" the value of whatever these elders and disabled put in in the SS system?:- Shouldn't there be enough left over for the "next of kin", who hopefully also worked as American citizens and paid into the SS system? I even like the idea of privatizing the SS under GWB...

Originally posted by Reaper2137
Yeah, haven forbid that we cut, and try and get out of debt. There are only two ways to get out of debt the first budget cuts and the second is raising taxes. Yes we need to get out of debt cutting programs and raising taxes is the only way to go. Better to let a few go under than let the whole country go under.

Social Security is a seperate tax and therefore should be seperate from the operating budget.

Only the first $106,000 of annual income is subject to Social Security Tax, eliminate that cap and apply the tax to all income (including capital gains) and there will be an abundance of $$$ for benefits and nobody goes under. Instead you would rather see a few go under? It would be more than a few. Your talking millions of people, in which the country would still go under economic wise and many more people would die of poverty.

Our country's debt is so great that you could take 100% of every citizen's income and we still couldn't pay it off.

The defense budget is running up the deficit more than anything else. Why are we using million dollar bombs to destroy countries and paying to rebuild them? The biggest threat to our national security is our foreign policy.

But that's just my opinion.

reply to post by David9176


Social security was never intended to become a means of retirement. It was suppose to act as a supplamental income on top of pensions. Americans have become way to dependant on entitlement programs, and the overall sense of entitlement by people has become an issue. I dont mind entitlement programs provided they are appropriate and self revenue generating.

We need to get the budget back under control and we need to quit wasting money on overseas problems.

I think its high time we began investing in America again.

This is just an article that the Post ran away with. The White House has offered a couple of releases that it intends on not touching Social Security and Welfare unless they are made stronger.

I am wondering if Obama is "controlled opposition". He has extended the wars in a way Bush never would have been able to. He is trying to override Pelosi and Reid and cut Social Security. The conspiracy here is he might be trying to throw the next election.

Originally posted by David9176
He cuts social security he will lose the elderly vote....it's guaranteed....which means he will most likely lose in 2012 to Mitt Romney.

That's the problem right there. He doesn't care. He lost the over-65 vote in 2008 and has already proven he doesn't necessarily need them to win.

It seems to me that the easiest way to solve the problem would be to eliminate the 'wage base,' which is the cap after which people no longer have to pay into social security. Small business owners would need (and deserve, IMO) an exemption or corresponding tax break, but the corporate execs and such raking in six and seven figure salaries shouldn't have a free ride while the rest of us pay to clean up this mess.

As it stands right now, social security is one of the most regressive taxes in the country, and even as a conservative, I must say, it shouldn't be that way.

reply to post by leemachino


We should cut all of it, including the military budget. Than when we are out of debt we can re-look at programs that need money than. It does no good to help any one if we can not afford it. What happens to these same people if the government defaults? almost every thing no... EVERYTHING should be on the cutting block.

When this is said and done, New laws should be put into place. which limit how much our government should spend, so that we may never spend more than we bring in, in taxes again.

reply to post by Reaper2137


That sounds good, but the national debt is so great that it is impossible to get out of. All we can do is continue to make the payments on the interest. Eventually those payments are going to be too much and the country is going to default anyway. I think we need to follow Iceland and give the Fed, IMF, Worldbank and all the other too big to fail banks a big middle finger.

Like I said before, Social Security is a seperate tax and therefore should not be considered in the operating budget of the US. If they want to take that tax to pay down the debt, then I don't want to pay that tax. Social Security was designed to be an insurance policy to help out the people who are no longer able to work. I don't agree with taking my insurance payments to pay for reckless spending on the military industrial complex or any other government cost other than the one it was intended and collected for.

As far as I can determine from reading (i'm a brit so I may be getting it wrong), there is effectively no social security fund, or there is an empty one. The money taken from people in the name of social security has already been spent.

Whats been happening is that the pot was robbed. People still pay in but that income is effectively lumped with other government revenue (its not been protected). As government revenue is dwarfed by expenditure (deficit situation) and has been most of the last century (see below), the benefits paid out are actually funded by borrowing. Just like everything else.

Historic Deficit

Nominal Dollars - Inflation Adjusted 2011 dollars

1940 2.9 Billion Dollar Deficit 43.935 Billion Deficit
1941 4.9 Billion Dollar Deficit 70.707 Billion Deficit
1942 20.5 Billion Dollar Deficit 266.705 Billion Deficit
1943 54.6 Billion Dollar Deficit 669.396 Billion Deficit
1944 47.6 Billion Dollar Deficit 574.056 Billion Deficit
1945 47.6 Billion Dollar Deficit 561.204 Billion Deficit
1946 15.9 Billion Dollar Deficit 172.992 Billion Deficit
1947 4 Billion Dollar Surplus 38.08 Billion Surplus
1948 11.8 Billion Dollar Surplus 103.958 Billion Surplus
1949 0.6 Billion Dollar Surplus 5.346 Billion Surplus
1950 3.1 Billion Dollar Deficit 27.311 Billion Deficit
1951 6.1 Billion Dollar Surplus 49.776 Billion Surplus
1952 1.5 Billion Dollar Deficit 12.015 Billion Deficit
1953 6.5 Billion Dollar Deficit 51.675 Billion Deficit
1954 1.2 Billion Dollar Deficit 9.468 Billion Deficit
1955 3 Billion Dollar Deficit 23.76 Billion Deficit
1956 3.9 Billion Dollar Surplus 30.42 Billion Surplus
1957 3.4 Billion Dollar Surplus 25.67 Billion Surplus
1958 2.8 Billion Dollar Deficit 20.552 Billion Deficit
1959 12.8 Billion Dollar Deficit 93.312 Billion Deficit
1960 0.3 Billion Dollar Surplus 2.148 Billion Surplus
1961 3.3 Billion Dollar Deficit 23.43 Billion Deficit
1962 7.1 Billion Dollar Deficit 49.913 Billion Deficit
1963 4.8 Billion Dollar Deficit 33.264 Billion Deficit
1964 5.9 Billion Dollar Deficit 40.415 Billion Deficit
1965 1.4 Billion Dollar Deficit 9.436 Billion Deficit
1966 3.7 Billion Dollar Deficit 24.235 Billion Deficit
1967 8.6 Billion Dollar Deficit 54.61 Billion Deficit
1968 25.2 Billion Dollar Deficit 153.72 Billion Deficit
1969 3.2 Billion Dollar Surplus 18.496 Billion Surplus
1970 2.8 Billion Dollar Deficit 15.316 Billion Deficit
1971 23 Billion Dollar Deficit 120.52 Billion Deficit
1972 23.4 Billion Dollar Deficit 118.638 Billion Deficit
1973 14.9 Billion Dollar Deficit 71.222 Billion Deficit
1974 6.1 Billion Dollar Deficit 26.23 Billion Deficit
1975 53.2 Billion Dollar Deficit 209.608 Billion Deficit
1976 73.7 Billion Dollar Deficit 274.901 Billion Deficit
1977 53.7 Billion Dollar Deficit 187.95 Billion Deficit
1978 59.2 Billion Dollar Deficit 192.4 Billion Deficit
1979 40.7 Billion Dollar Deficit 118.84 Billion Deficit
1980 73.8 Billion Dollar Deficit 190.404 Billion Deficit
1981 79 Billion Dollar Deficit 184.07 Billion Deficit
1982 128 Billion Dollar Deficit 281.6 Billion Deficit
1983 207.8 Billion Dollar Deficit 442.614 Billion Deficit
1984 185.4 Billion Dollar Deficit 378.216 Billion Deficit
1985 212.3 Billion Dollar Deficit 418.231 Billion Deficit
1986 221.2 Billion Dollar Deficit 429.128 Billion Deficit
1987 149.7 Billion Dollar Deficit 279.939 Billion Deficit
1988 155.2 Billion Dollar Deficit 277.808 Billion Deficit
1989 152.5 Billion Dollar Deficit 260.775 Billion Deficit
1990 221.2 Billion Dollar Deficit 358.344 Billion Deficit
1991 269.3 Billion Dollar Deficit 420.108 Billion Deficit
1992 290.4 Billion Dollar Deficit 438.504 Billion Deficit
1993 255.1 Billion Dollar Deficit 374.997 Billion Deficit
1994 203.2 Billion Dollar Deficit 290.576 Billion Deficit
1995 164 Billion Dollar Deficit 227.96 Billion Deficit
1996 107.5 Billion Dollar Deficit 145.125 Billion Deficit
1997 22 Billion Dollar Deficit 29.04 Billion Deficit
1998 69.2 Billion Dollar Surplus 89.96 Billion Surplus
1999 125.6 Billion Dollar Surplus 159.512 Billion Surplus
2000 236.4 Billion Dollar Surplus 290.772 Billion Surplus
2001 127.3 Billion Dollar Surplus 152.76 Billion Surplus
2002 157.8 Billion Dollar Deficit 186.204 Billion Deficit
2003 374 Billion Dollar Deficit 430.1 Billion Deficit
2004 413 Billion Dollar Deficit 462.56 Billion Deficit
2005 319 Billion Dollar Deficit 347.71 Billion Deficit
2006 248 Billion Dollar Deficit 260.4 Billion Deficit
2007 162 Billion Dollar Deficit 165.24 Billion Deficit
2008 455 Billion Dollar Deficit 455 Billion Deficit
2009 1416 Billion Dollar Deficit 1416 Billion Deficit
2010 1294 Billion Dollar Deficit 1294 Billion Deficit
2011 1650 Billion Dollar Deficit 1650 Billion Deficit

Once you realise the scale of the issue the current shenanigans are pure political theatre. The democrats are in denial that there is a real problem and the republicans want to ensure the rich stay the big pig at the trough until it runs completely dry. Which probably wont be long now.

There is no way to solve this with the kind of small scale tinkering being proposed in either direction. With a combination of closing all tax loopholes; tax rebalancing and tax rises AND massive federal austerity over a long time maybe...

If its any consolation the UK is as screwed as you are. I don't expect i'll every see the state pension i've been contributing towards all my life. It wont exist by the time i'm old enough to collect.

Originally posted by justwokeup
As far as I can determine from reading (i'm a brit so I may be getting it wrong), there is effectively no social security fund, or there is an empty one. The money taken from people in the name of social security has already been spent.

No, you've got it right.

The problem with social security is that it is collected as a tax, the FICA tax, and under US law, you have no property right to an individual benefit from taxes. In other words, the government, specifically Congress, can allocate the funds collected from social security in any manner that it wishes. In reality, for much of the history of the social security program, the government has actually used it as nothing more than a supplementary taxation system where the excess taxes collected were used to fund all manner of unrelated programs.

Unfortunately, we've now reached a point where the number of retirees is rapidly approaching parity with the number of workers in the system. The excess revenue isn't there anymore and the system doesn't have the past revenues on account to offset the current deficits because, as you say, Congress has already blown it all on all manner of idiocy over the last few decades.

Social Security costs America nothing.

Let's say old man Jones gets $1100 a month for Social Security. He uses part of it to pay his rent...that money stays in America. He spends a meager $250 a month on food, that money stays in America. He spends $90 a month on his electric bill to keep warm and have lights on, that money stays in America because his power comes from nuclear power stations and the Hoover damn. The rest he spends on prescription drugs to stay alive...

None of the money leaves the US.

Thus Congress can print paper till the cows come home to keep it going, it's a 100% domestic program.

The Social Security Trust Funds were moved by Congress to the General Fund. It's been one of their most successful revenue generation programs since our country was created.

If Obama was to cut Social Security...how about mandating you HAVE TO be on American Soil to receive the benefit?

We ship out tens of Billions every single month in Social Security benefits to Americans now living in foreign countries....and that money is what is costing us....the money left our economy.

social security has been sustainable and will continue to be. the real problem arises when all the politicians believe it is a rainy day fund. if the keep their %^&$ing hands of off it there would be no problem. period. it is just that simple.

Well not to worry. Obama will never cut entitlements such as welfare,subsidized housing and food stamps.... They will only cut the programs where people actually paid into them.

I agree but its easier said than done. I do certainly agree they are sub-human pigs. . . . Though I would suggest that pigs are better than them. If they don’t then the democrats are no better than the republicans.

Well, yeah, Obama is caving and I am getting quite angry myself. However, the Republicans have a political gun to him "America Will Fail If You Don't Agree With Our Terms, Mr.President"

They refuse everything about the debt ceiling unless SS, Medicare, and Medicaid are cut. What is a president to do when these people are holding the nation hostage? Is he going to do the thing that prolongs the country and gets him fired, or is he going to do the popular thing that ends up winning him national favor but America loses status worldwide?

What is a man to do when Boehner himself is facing a political ku in the Republican party as Cantor and his team seek to overthrow Boehner in the future for not standing for the "Tea Party" ideals of "destroy America". These wakkos say no, even in the face of Financial Armageddon and force the President to even consider putting SS on the table.


This my friends, is a hostage situation. Both Obama and Boehner have political weapons aimed at them and the nation. The 2010 midterms was a mistake that the entire world, not just America, will regret in the history books.

One of the Social Security myths propagated by Republicans is that the Social Security trust fund was looted. Nothing is further from the truth. The Treasury Bonds held by Social Security are just as valid as anyone else's, including American private citizens, China, UK and so forth. The US sells bonds to Social Security, and then spends the cash. So SS does not hold cash, it holds bonds, just as any bank or government does. Many Americans, and their pension funds, are invested in US govt bond funds.

Here's an alternative viewpoint to those that feel that they are "entitled" to something from the federal government.

The gist of it for those who can't watch is this:
Social Security is a ponzi scheme. "There's only one solution to this.... sunset Social Securirty and Medicare. Voluntarily eliminate your own entitlement, and continue to bear the existing Social Security and Medicare tax burden to clean up the remaining unfunded liabilities."
"Morally rise above the issue of 'fairness...'"

Part 1 (The Problem)


Part 2 (The Solution)

reply to post by TheOneElectric


It doesn't matter what the reasons are...you either stand with the American people or you don't. Obama claimed to be one that did but he's proving that isn't the case.....if he can't grow a sack then to hell with him.

People need to stop finding excuses for him and start demanding action.