From Thom Hartmann:
A New America Foundation study is not calling for Social Security to be cut back but to double it. With the crash of private pensions, homeownership and personal savings in the footsteps of this Republican Great Recession, Social Security becomes central to the historic "three-legged stool" of American retirement security. Yet Social Security now only brings in only a about a third of the money needed for retirement. This study recommends doubling social security payments, and funding it by lifting the cap so millionaire banker, who right now pay a paltry 1%, pay the same 12.4% that a carpenter or firemen does. Add to that a social security tax on billionaire hedge fund managers and others who make their living through sitting on their butts, around the pool, waiting for the interest or dividend check to arrive in the mail, and you can not only double current social security payments, but the system is solvent forever.
Thom also made an interesting comment to a caller. Why not just turn it around, or reverse it? Right now, we and our employer together (each pay half) pay 12.4% of our first $106,000 of wages. Over $106,000 you pay nothing. So, most people and businesses pay all year long. What if we switched it around. Pay nothing on the first $106000 and then pay 12.4% on everything over. What a great benefit to the economy and businesses alike. Most people would get a 6.2% raise, and their employers would see a 6.2% drop in their expenses, and the wealthy would pay their fair share.
Who could argue with that?
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We need a private option for SSI. Thanks to Obama and the Democratic Party we are now years closer to SSI being totaly bankrupt. SSI has failed and the stock market has been going strong since the beginning. That all I need to see to hedge towords a privet option. I'm sure the stock morket will be around after SSUI is all gone thanks to the looters.
ReplyDeleteWhat has Obama and the Democratic Party to drive Social Security years closer to being totally bankrupt?
ReplyDeleteJC:
ReplyDeleteChris is a fucking [TPT] tea party troll. He came over to my blog and wanted to now when I would blame Obama for the Oil gusher. LOL
Oh poor deluded Chris, he really needs to stop listening to rightwing lies!
ReplyDeleteI love these ideas Jerry and even with no changes SS is perfectly fine and will be as long as I'm alive! There is NO bankruptcy on the horizon, no matter how much the right prays for it! LOL
Its all my fault. I was visiting a wingnut blog and posted a comment, now Chris has tracked me down, along with some on my bloglist! Sorry!
ReplyDeleteIf trolls are going to take the time to read/listen to what I post and comment on it, I must be doing something right.
ReplyDeleteJC:
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good fight my friend.
I gave up on them a long time ago.
Like George Carlin used to say
--I like to crush them.---
Good post, JC. Frankly I find dealing with assholes to be a waste of energy.
ReplyDeleteyou do alot right Jerry, (no, your wife wasn't talking to me about you!)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/18
ReplyDeleteThe rich are getting by with economic murder in this country and our tax and Social Security systems are proof. This nonsense of funneling money upwards to those who are already abundantly wealthy is lunacy. When the rich start paying their fair share LIKE THEY DO EVERYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD, and the poor and middle class have more money in their own pockets, then and only then will you see this economy become healthy again. Continuing as we have for the past 9 years is foolhardy and is a guaranteed recipe for failure!
ReplyDeleteWhat if we switched it around. Pay nothing on the first $106000 and then pay 12.4% on everything over.
ReplyDeleteI haven't done the math, but I suspect this wouldn't bring in as much money as the current system. The threshold dollar amount would need to be lowered until it did.
Who could argue with that?
Republicans.....and, evidently, trolls.
It's an appealing idea because it would re-distribute income from the rich to the middle class. The current system re-distributes wealth from current workers to current retirees, but most people don't realize that.
There may be enough money with the removal of the cap and additional sources of money as suggested by the New America Foundation study. Of course you could not double the SS monthly pay out.
ReplyDeleteWe should also stop sending checks to people who do not need them. It should be an insurance program, not a pension program.
ReplyDeleteFor an outstanding, thorough analysis of the condition of Social Security, click here
ReplyDeleteI'm for removing the cap and lowering the overall rate. I'm not so sure about eliminating the tax for the first 106K. A major reason why Social Security has withstood one attack after another is that everyone pays in and everyone takes out. It would take conservatives about two seconds to paint it as a welfare program if anything happened to change that. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that there's more to it than appears.
I agree with not eliminating the tax on the first 106K. It was presented more as tongue-in-cheek than anything else. It is an example of how easy it is to "fix" SS and that there is plenty of money available to do it.
ReplyDelete