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SS or shell game?
Well Congress is at it again with OUR Social Security
Nightmare on Social Security Street -- If you liked President Bush's private Social Security accounts, you'll love the sequel - top Republicans want to tap the system's surplus to finance individual accounts.
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_6965.shtmlSNIP
Q: How do Republican lawmakers' accounts differ from the president's?A: Plans authored by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana, with backing by House Republican leaders, would redirect surplus Social Security payroll taxes to individual accounts for workers 55 and younger once current benefits and administrative costs are paid. The amount diverted would be about 2.2 percent of wages, up to a cap.
Bush would let workers 55 and under divert up to 4 percent of pay from future payroll tax collections to the accounts.
Q: What Social Security surplus?
A: Yes, Social Security has built a huge surplus since it started collecting extra payroll taxes in 1984. But presidents and Congresses since then have borrowed those surpluses to mask the size of the federal deficit and other spending to the tune of $1.67 trillion so far.
This year alone Social Security will collect $163 billion more in payroll taxes than it is paying in benefits. Surplus tax collections will continue until 2017, when government actuaries predict benefit payouts will exceed tax collections.
Remember Bush's recent tour of the Social Security vault in West Virginia, where he pronounced, "There is no trust fund, just IOUs that I saw firsthand?" Well, those IOUs are interest-bearing Treasury securities backed by the U.S. government and are what DeMint, McCrery and their colleagues count on to create private Social Security accounts.
Since those funds are in US treasury bonds to call them IOUs is Bush at his normal ignorance speaking out .....well you know from what part. If T bonds don't still have the full faith and confidence of the/our government behind them then we are in even more trouble financially than we feared. I wonder what China thinks when it hears this, since they hold a very large part of our debt? Oh well they can always call their notes in and just take the country, so I guess that isn't much of a problem for them. We as SS recipients on the other hand had better take a good long look at this situation.
Imagine what 4% of your SS payments for a year would come to and then imagine how rich you will be at retirement time. 4% coming out, however, from every working person in the country can add up to a very large chunk of change. The goal of the BA and neocons in general has been to wipe out every thing that the American people gained through FDR and the New Deal, with this slight of hand game if it becomes law they will have made that dream into our night mare and their fondest day dream.
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Social Security
Submarine USS Wahoo ss238
They never cease to amaze me, that is why it is called
Social Security, we dont call it Private Security, that is
what 401k's are for
The cost of privatizing is enormous
Great opportunity
I just can't quite understand why so many people are being so negative on the issue of private social security accounts. What Bush and the Republican party are trying to do is to give us the power to participate in the future of our own retirement. Just think about what this can mean to our children. They can invest 4% of their Social Security contribution any way they want and build for their future.
With this kind of investment power we can all look forward to a wonderful retirement with no worries about where the money will come from. Here's a breakdown of what we can do under this new program:
Your social security contribution today is 6.2% of your gross income up to $90,000. That is a whopping $2.48 per $1000 of monthly income. The U.S. median household income is about half of that $90,000. So just for the sake of argument let's assume $48,000 or $4,000 per month meaning the average family can invest all of $9.92 per month in the fund they choose. Isn’t this a wonderful opportunity. And how about those of us that pay the maximum, we can invest $18.60 per month into our private account? What more can we ask? The Republican party is truly the party of the people. How can anyone object to having such control of their own destiny?
I guess there are still a few questions that need to be asked. Like who is going to handle these funds and how much are they going to charge for their services? How many funds are there that will let you put in $2.48 or $9.92 or even $18.60 at a time? And what about people that get paid by the week instead of monthly, then each contribution is $.59 per $1000 of monthly income. What are they going to do, put the money in some cash reserve account until they have enough to buy a share of the designated fund? This could turn into an accounting nightmare. But Hey, as Bush says, "It's your money, you should be able to control how it is invested."
footnote: This is a revised copy of an earlier post I put in one of the blog threads.
Its getting Cloudy in the Whitehouse
Submarine USS Wahoo ss238
Cloud 9, why do you hate America so much?
You Rock!!!
Hate, me?
Wahoo,
Love ya like a brother so what makes you think I hate America. The idiots that voted Republican maybe, but not America. This would be such a great place if it weren't for people. We just need a healthy dose of Chlorine in the Gene Pool.
Snark?
My sarcasm detector is on the fritz. This is it right?
Guess I won't have to give up my country club membership or the house in Aspen. Regardless, the point about privatization is that we have it already, it's called an IRA.
What is sarcasm?
The dictionary defines sarcasm as "A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound." I think this was more along the lines of facetious or maybe jocular, even ludicrous but not sarcastic. Actually, I was really thinking we could better use our $9.92 to go out for a Big Mac. That seems to make more sense than investing it in a government directed money market fund.
And yes, we do have IRA's and 401k's and a few other retirement programs that are a far better investment than putting a few bucks each month into some Bush investment scam.
Don't give up on your country club membership or the house in Aspen, just don't buy one next door to Kenny Boy.
There, that's better
Ahah. Now it's working, and it's reading unusually high. Guess you just have to smack it real hard once and while.
Careful
how hard you smack it, you might dislocate something:)
sprinning the Social Security out of the wash...
I just hate the idea that 'even the thousands of $$' I invest in the stock market sometimes don't return the rate of investment. --
I'd like the option to have either or; --although the rich stay rich ...and if this country isn't going to keep the 'poor' covered and taken care of. --Mostly since 70+ will be at a higher percentage in years to come --who the hell cares what you're IRA and/or stock will bring in.
Social Security is an 'institution' and created as a 'last resort' for the poor, retired elderly and those who didn't have much to contribute to this program.
--Anyone who wants a private account --call your stockbroker ---and leave SS alone!!!