11 days until your SS checks might be interrupted

Republicans have been slyly promoting cuts to the real value of Social Security benefits for decades.


Social Security isn't the problem. Medicare, Medicaid and interest of the debt are.

Can you walk-the-talk with your metaphors?

 

It's not like Joe biden's record on social security is very much for the people....

 

Raise taxes? Cut benefits? Something else?

Doubtful because...?

Which conservatives? Social Security and Medicare are supported by liberals and conservatives alike.

Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security should at least keep up with inflation.

 

What does this have to do my comment pointing out that Social Security is not a major driver our budget problems?

 

You're prepared to default?

 

What a strange comment. Congress has access to all public funds.

 

The debt is determined by spending, and spending is determined by passage of bills, like Trump’s tax cuts for the rich. This is not the time to gripe about spending. That should have been done when bills were debated and ultimately passed. THAT was the spending. Now we have bills to pay and the Constitution says the debt shall not be questioned. So now that we have the bills, they must be paid. So just pay them. That is the constitutional answer and that is what Biden should do.

 

Yes, they should, or the quality and quantity of service will deteriorate. Responsible funding plans and cutting out government waste and corruption would help, but that’s hard, not glamorous and politically unpopular. Therefore most politicians oppose those things.

 

About sums this entire RW partisan charade up, it's specific to hurting the current POTUS for 2024 by hurting the American people en masse. The spending was passed already by Congress, now the bill is simply due.

Trump Party playing harmful political games by putting the country in the noose....the media also plays right along, fear = eyeballs = viewership = $$$$$

 

You show your lack of understanding by that statement! It’s not a matter of what you consider to be a diversified portfolio. There are rules and standards that provide and ensure diversification. But you don’t know that.

Only if Republicans succeed in killing it mid-stream. Since most of the assets are supplied by future beneficiaries SS doesn’t actually affect the debt. It’s a “paid-for” system.

SS is not an investment. It’s more like insurance, and you are saying that insurance is worthless and is going to fail, again showing your lack of understanding of the subject.

Yeah, like Trump’s $3.5 trillion tax cut for the rich.

If only that were true. If you can’t see that Republicans want to shift burden to the public and public money to the rich, you’re blind. The Republicans are all about enriching the wealthy at the expense of the worker and the people. And that’s what this budget BS is all about. If you were right and Republicans actually wanted to solve problems and fix things, they would raise the income limit on payroll taxes enough to not only preserve SS, but to increase benefits for retirees who are now struggling and losing against inflation.

 

OASI 2022’s INCOME & COST

INCOME

Contributions; $946 billion
Taxation of Benefits; $47 billion
Semi-annual interest; $64 billion

Total; $1.056 trillion

Note; The semi-annual interest of a special issue comes from the Treasury’s General Account, thus, mainly corporate and individual Income tax payers.

COST

Benefit Payments; $1.08 trillion
Administrative Expenses; $4 billion
Transfers to Railroad Retirement Program; $5.3 billion

Total; $1.097 trillion

SHORTFALL; $1.097 - $1.056 = Minus $41 billion

Trust Fund Asset as of Dec 31st, 2021; $2.752 trillion

Minus $41 billion

Trust Fund Asset as of Dec 31st, 2022; $2.711 trillion

NOTE; 2023’s projected shortfall; $120 billion, mainly due to a 8.7% COLA increase.

 

So the quick and proper fix for this debt gripe session is to invoke the 14th Amendment and PAY THE DAMNED BILLS.

End of story. The current “debate” will die a natural death.

 

Yep, just bypass the congressional process and keep spending like there is no tomorrow. When the monetary system breaks down, that will be okay. Then the Democrats will be free to rebuild it with a redistribution of wealth which will reward their powerful supporters and punish those who disagreed with them.

As for the poor, they will still be poor and supporting the Democrats in hopes than something might spill out of the rich Democrat feeding trough for them. The middle class, who had pulled the wagon for economy during the years of prosperity, will be gone. In other words, the United States will look like most any South American or communist dictatorship.

 

How have they been doing that? I did like your chart, though. It showed clearly that the crisis is debt and spending. The interest line on the chart is scary.

 

They can pay the bills without the 14th amendment and without a rise in debt ceiling. It is just a matter of writing the checks. Paying bills is a choice.

 

Shame on me? What do I have to do with it? The question is: Why do Republicans think that the deficit should be addressed on everyone else's back, but their own constituents should be protected? It just shows the hypocrisy of the Republican base, usually older: They cry and cry about cutting spending, but if it would come to cutting some of their own benefits, that's off the table.

Now, I've also asked for proposals of how to address the spending problem. So far, crickets, if you don't count the usual cra% like: Just cut spending on Ukraine or illegals... Unfortunately, that won't move the needle. The big three have to be on the table, and we can't have any future tax cuts. Are Republicans game?

 

She's not in charge any longer, nor is your pal...



Ate you ready to move on or will you try to impose him on the country again in 2024?

 

Hmmm. Let's see... that's our military, police, firefighters, border guards.

You must be one of the folks who want to defund the police.

 

You Democrats were the folks who introduced the idea of defunding the police. That ridiculous idea was directed toward the LOCAL POLICE. When the issue became unpopular, you spread the falsehood that the Republicans advocate defunding. That is nonsense.

Republicans are very concerned about how the Democrats are using the FBI. The FBI should not be fighting crime, not doing the bidding of the Democrat Party. They have no business harassing parents at school board meetings or monitoring conservative Catholics. This is why Republicans have proposed examining the funding of the FBI when it is misused.

 

Social Security checks will not be interrupted. They go out regardless. Essential personnel, who will get their paychecks when a shut down is over, stay on duty to make sure the systems are running properly .

Services are affected, not the issuance of benefits already being paid.

 

You're not in the 80% who support it.

If you know enough to invest successfully, you don't need Social Security or the small amount of your income that goes into FICA taxes.

I don't collect SS or use Medicare. How about you?

As a matter of social policy, what do we do with or for people who lose their money to con artists like the Orange Oaf?

 

It's paid from the FICA tax, not "investors, mostly foreign."

I don't know where you guys get this stuff.

 

What should we do during serious recessions or depressions when tens of millions of Americans have no income?

 

Please don't misquote me as you did in your message.

I approve of cutting wasteful spending, but playing chicken with public debt isn't the way to do it. How about not voting for the wasteful spending?

 

If SS is funded without assistance then why is it that we need to raise the debt ceiling to keep it coming. You also haven’t done enough to study it if you think that future beneficiaries are going to fund it sufficiently. If that were the case why can’t they pay the full amount after 2035?

as for my investments I guarantee they’re just fine and yes I could do better with my own money.