That having been said, it’s not really a cliff, more of a downward slope. It’s not like as soon as it turns midnight on January 31st our economy will collapse, we can go a few months without any catastrophic problems. But if they don’t eventually come to a deal the effects on our GDP are going to be pretty severe.
I doubt they come to a deal. The democrats are refusing to cut spending. Just taxing the rich isn’t the answer. The debt ceiling doesn’t need to be increased they need to suck it up and start cutting.
I don’t understand what is so hard about raising the age when you can collect SS.
The Dems are just afraid of the consequence of what could happen when you take some from the middle/lower in terms of consumer spending really. We can all speculate but the thought is take from middle/lower, less consumer demand, less jobs, higher taxes on less net = less revenue total amount
There is probably some logic to the thought however we can’t subsidize our way to national prosperity. I don’t care how ya spin it
While raising the age on social security would help, it also won’t solve the problem on its own, or even come close to doing so.
“Social Security: Another 20 percent of the budget, or $731 billion, paid for Social Security, which provided retirement benefits averaging $1,229 per month to 35.6 million retired workers in December 2011. Social Security also provided benefits to 2.9 million spouses and children of retired workers, 6.3 million surviving children and spouses of deceased workers, and 10.6 million disabled workers and their eligible dependents in December 2011.” Source: http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1258
According to wikipedia the average life expectancy in the U.S. is 78, and with each of 35.6 million people collecting 1,229 per month, that means that the total amount of social security being collected for retired people is about $525 billion. If we’re going to raise the the age by two years, that’s 2 out of 13 years that people on average collect social security for. So 2/13 * 525 bil = roughly 80 billion. The current federal deficit is hovering somewhere around $1.1 trillion as far as I’ve read, though I’ve heard that there’s a good amount that isn’t reported there so the number is actually much bigger than that.
Disclaimer: I know these numbers aren’t 100% accurate, just a rough estimate to get an idea of how much raising the social security age would actually save us.
I understand but they need to start somewhere. They should bump it up to 75 imo. By the time I’m old enough to collect the average age will probably be up in the mid 80s. It’s is a broken system right now but they are just refusing to do anything about it.
I just find it crazy that they think they can just continue to spend without any ramifications.
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I get that, but with how low interest rates are, reigning in spending shouldn’t be the biggest concern. Spending on the right things should be, but that’s a whole separate conversation.
IMO if they’re going to try to make more money they should start with corporate tax rates. Raise it and then offer tax breaks for companies who employ more people in the U.S., kill two birds with one stone.
And offer tax breaks for you for employing American workers, so you have a competitive edge. Read the whole damn thing next time, context is important.
And (I forgot to mention this in the original post) only have it apply to businesses over a certain annual profit level.
You didn’t read his full statement I’m guessing…
“then offer tax breaks for companies who employ more people in the U.S”
Exactly what I’ve said in the past. Of course the tariff/tax revenues our government collects would need to be deployed towards growth inducing ventures…not military defense of their petrodollar.
I like the way you think. Small business should be fostered not crushed as the government currently does. If you aren’t profitable enough to bribe lawmakers today you’re dead in the water, this must change.
Agreed. My vote would be for updating our aging infrastructure with high speed railways, among other things. But that’s just one option.
Thanks, unfortunately the people who say that small business is the backbone of our society are wrong in todays marketplace. It damn well should be and we need to get to the point where it is, but right now it isn’t.
I almost don’t know where to begin…there’s so much wrong.
I DO think social security needs a monstrous overhaul, but I know there will be a shitload of idiots that ignored all of the warnings the past decade of “PLAN FOR YOUR RETIREMENT, SS ISN’T GOING TO SUSTAIN ITSLEF!” and “rely” on retiring on SS… IMHO if you didn’t plan ahead and secure some funds of your own for your future you deserve to deal with the consequences of such a retarded act.
The real kicker, is that even if they made changes to SS there would probably still be a huge percentage of those people that remain on public assistance because they would just find a way to get on some other program offered to receive similar monetary benefits. Heck, there’d probably be government offices/agencies TELLING people “oh, well if you do this and this, we can get you onto XYZ program!” like they do in welfare offices - “hmm, if you’d like more money, you should think about having another baby” (this literally happened to my good friend’s sister when she went in to have her benefits reviewed)
They also seem to be completely ignoring the public. Poles have shown a heavy percentage of the rich people they’e proposing to tax heavier, have come forward and stated that they are not opposed to the hikes because they would barely affect their overall wealth!
I’m sorry, but I truly fail to see why this is such an issue for them to resolve.
The only people I hear taking up small biz are the very politicians that are crushing small biz. They talk about how we need small biz when they need our votes, then they laugh behind closed doors.
Our plumbing and overall infrastructure is antiqued. We don’t have to pull a Japan and build roads to nowhere, we have roads (and the shit beneath) that is in desperate need of replacement or repair.
It definitely needs to be changed, raising the age is just the entirely wrong way to do it. Paul Krugman says it best: “The point is that if you want to control Medicare costs, you can’t do it by kicking a small number of relatively young seniors off the program; to control costs, you have to, you know, control costs.” It's Health Care Costs, Stupid - The New York Times
Medicare is a horribly innefficient program, even when compared to Medicaid. As per the linked article above: “The key is having a health insurance system that can say no — no, we won’t pay premium prices for drugs that are little if any better, we won’t pay for medical procedures that yield little or no benefit”
It’s so sad it’s almost kind of funny. I found it hilarious that Paul Ryan was considered a serious fiscal conservative. That dude was a con man through and through.
Also a good option. High speed rail is the one that I hear mentioned most commonly, the point is we need monetary policy that will help create blue collar jobs, not give more money to billionaire CEO’s and hope that they’ll create more.
blue eyed devils sig: “America has a choice R.P. or R.I.P.”
i still agree with this and i still feel that we are fucked. unless they stop letting so many people live off the system and stop giving away money and get more manufacturing in our country then there is no way we can get out of this. social security? fuck. im paying into something that i will never see. i have a feeling i will never be able to retire with how things are going. im done having hope for the future. there is none because of all the fucking deadbeats and morons that are brainwashed into thinking everything is fine the way it is.
Social Security is a government run Ponzi scheme. I’m not being cynical. That’s what it is. Benefits are paid out of the investor’s money. That was fine when everyone was having 2, 3, 4, or more kids. Now that fewer and fewer people are farming people only have 1 or 2 kids and the population stopped growing and the scheme is falling apart.
It’s fairly simple really. The only way to “fix” social security is to mandate that everyone have at least 3 kids or abandon the program. Either that or drive inflation to devalue the benefits so that the fewer current contributors are putting in more than the past contributers are now taking out as benefits.
Great point…it’s been over 50yrs since the government released funds to build/re-build infrastructure…I’ve worked for the engineering dept of a town for about a year now, and for 2yrs at Erie County just prior…our systems are failing horribly and actually costing a crapload of taxpayer dollars. Storm and sanitary sewers are in such disrepair that we are unnecessarily treating an inflated load on these systems (which costs crazy money)…but there’s no money in the budgets to go through replacements so most issues are either left alone or bandaided. Look at our roads(and the way we “re-pave” them)…nothing is done the way it’s “supposed” to be done anymore… roads are milled and “topped” (I.E. just coated over to give the appearance of being nice and new when really it’s only going to last a year or two before the imperfections/problems in the preceeding layers shows up in the fresh stuff and the problem rears it’s ugly head again. It’s the same way with 90% of our infrastructures…in storm/sanitary sewers the new kick is to line the pipes with continuous fiberglass or inject all of the joints with 2-part fluid grout in an attempt to prolong the inevitable need to dig everything out and start over. We’re in pretty terrible shape honestly. The government hasn’t done anything about infrastructure since the thruyway system was developed.
I only used SS as an example there are a lot of other things that need some serious corrections as Event has mentioned. Medicare is a complete joke right now. I would love to see defense spending broken down too with more detail. They have to start cutting there as well.
Fry the Y generation is nearly as big as the baby boomer generation. The problem is the system was set up when the life expectancy was 65. They weren’t expecting most people to collect it. Now it has become a crutch in society when it was never intended for that. If you ask me no one should be reliant on SS when they reach 65. You should be smart when your young and live within your means and save!
