Because apparently it needs to be said.

[onecaliberal]

Social Security is OUR money. It exists because WORKERS PAY INTO IT. Recon lawmakers are desperately trying to steal our money. It is NOT a drain on the economy. Bush ripped off billions from the trust fund to pay for his illegal wars and tax cuts for the wealthy.
Social Security is NOT AN ENTITLEMENT. It is the money we worked our entire lives for.

[HUAJIAO]

1. It very well IS AND ENTITLEMENT,, because we did work for it, we are entitled to it.

[Silent Type]

2. Exactly. I've never understood the opposition to the term "Entitlement." But

the OP has a point.

In any event, we need to stop kicking the SS can down the road. Otherwise, we are headed for an automatic 23% cut in benefits around 2033 (according to the SS Trust Fund Report). If GOPers are in control when Congress finally realizes something needs to be done, it'll be off the backs of current/future retirees.

We are not going to get removal of the Wage Cap, no matter how loudly it's touted, but it can certainly be restructured.

[onecaliberal]

4. We need to stop voting for people who refuse to end the cap. Why are these fucking people held up

above the workers. We are the one who make EVERYTHING go.

[Bettie]

6. We are the job creators

because we tend to spend most of what we bring in...that creates economic activity.

The rich own the businesses, but we are the customers, the consumers...without us, there would be no business.

Meanwhile, Republicans are trying to placate the human dragons who put the money into their vast hordes, removing it from the economy, ensuring it doesn't generate economic activity.

[William Seger]

14. Yep! People create jobs hoping to make a profit selling stuff

... not because they have money they don't know what to do with.

[orthoclad]

77. The demand creates jobs, not the biz owners

Amazon and walmart did not create jobs. They REPLACED jobs. They replaced small biz that grew out of the community with massive alienating underpaid warehouses.

[jaxexpat]

74. And there you go, as R. Reagan would say, defining the essential mission of the GOP.

They've always seen themselves and the power of their wealth as more important than sustenance for the masses. They're so wrong. It is always massed humanity that propels the grand movements of history. Efforts to maintain the petty fortunes of the few are never more than footnotes. They're always doomed to fate and rust. Refusal to embrace that reality, to find purpose in simply living, is why they are always the minority. GOTV and prosperity is always possible.

[Silent Type]

9. We need to, but I don't see it happening. That's the reality.

[housecat]

58. "We" don't vote for these people. But the magats in a separate reality only hear each other and vote

how they're told on rightwing medial.

[onecaliberal]

63. The cap has been protected by all parties up to now.

[we can do it]

5. Because the racists have used it with derogatory connotations. (sp)

Last edited Thu Jun 15, 2023, 11:58 AM - Edit history (1)

[Silent Type]

10. That is true, it has become a derogatory term. But, it is an Entitlement.

[William Seger]

16. No not an entitlement

Unlike, say, food stamps, you aren't elegible for SS unless you or your spouse paid into it - - it's insurance.

[we can do it]

18. Which is exactly why it is an entitlement. Entitled means it is owned to you.

[William Seger]

33. (Misplaced reply below)

[William Seger]

30. Using the term loosely hides the distinction

... that you're only "entitled" to it because you or your spouse or supporting parent paid for it. Calling it an entitlement makes it sound like a grant, like food stamps, which is why some Rs think it's just a policy decision to cut benefits. Cutting SS would be renigging on a contract.

[we can do it]

36. Not true. A grant is not an entitlement.

[we can do it]

34. The wage cap can be removed if we get enough people in office.

[allegorical oracle]

40. It's only fair to raise the wage cap. There are more millionaires/billionaires than ever. Plus, most

workers paid Soc. Sec/Medicare tax on every cent they earned. I had my own small business and paid both the employer's and employee's share on every penny that came through the door. Filed at the lowest income bracket (15%) so paid total taxes of almost 38% when income+ FICA taxes were totaled up. More than Jeff Bezos.

[Silent Type]

44. It might be fair, but it won't happen unless a lot more Democrats are elected.

They’ll make a small increase in Cap, but that’s just kicking the can down the road.

[DENVERPOPS]

67. It will never be fair, Because

SSI is only paid on what is called "Earned Income", and the wealthy and uber rich only earn "Capital Gains".
Since their profits are mostly/all because of "Capital Gains" they pay nothing or next to nothing into SSI.

And the Republicans have been able to lower the tax on Capital Gains steadily to the present 15?% rate.

Warren Buffet wasn't joking when he, as a Multi-Billionaire, stated that he paid a lesser %age tax than his housekeeper..........
15% less was because he doesn't pay a penny into SSI, the rest was his extremely low rate of Capital Gains which is his entire source of income...........

[Silent Type]

68. Agree, but that will take electing even more Democrats.

[DENVERPOPS]

71. Regretfully

I haven't seen U.S. Democrat House Members or Senators standing in line to change the laws when they have had the opportunity.
Reviewing the wealth of them, might provide clues!
All of the huge Trump/Republican tax cuts to the wealthy, weren't reserved just for Republicans only.......

And did anyone ever get nailed for the massive amount of Republicans doing incredible amounts of "Insider Training" the same afternoon as a private meeting when they found out that the Covid was a REAL threat? They all ran to their phones, and realigned their investments that afternoon, and notifying all their wealthy Donors and friends.
The Grand Champion of Insider Trading that afternoon was some U.S. Republican Female Senator? That the SEC first reported having traded 20 Million in stock out of companies that were sure to crash, and putting the money in companies that were certain to increase profitability during a Pandemic. She never got nailed, or any of the rest who were doing it that afternoon after the meeting. Of course, her husband was President of the New York Stock Exchange, I'm sure that helped..........

Like George Carlin said: "It's a club, and you ain't in it"

BTW: the Federal minimum wage is still at 7.50 and has been for years and years and years. There are some States and Cities that have a minimum wage much higher, but there are a whole big bunch of states, (esp Republican ones), that have used the Federal Minimum Wage as THEIR State's Minimum Wage...............

[Rebl2]

45. I agree!

[wackadoo wabbit]

57. It's because the right has demonized the word "entitlement," just as it did the word "liberal"

We need to reclaim the word "entitlement." Don't let the right redefine that word.

[Rebl2]

20. I think some

people hear the word entitled or entitlement and they think grifter. Like tfg guy thinks he is entitled to keep those boxes he stole and kept at his Florida club.
You are right that it is an entitlement because we worked for that money and it was promised to us when we retired at 65 years of age. I wish there was a different word we could use regarding the SS we were promised.

[HUAJIAO]

22. right,, repubs have twisted the meaning of the word, the media runs with that meaning

and so it has obtained an incorrect meaning..

[johnnyfins]

47. You are absolutely correct

Unfortunately, Rush Limbaugh singlehandedly turned "Entitlement" into a RW dirty word and equated it to welfare. That's what happens when the Fairness Doctrine is destroyed.

[dchill]

52. Big thumbs up!

[Ferrets are Cool]

78. This. When I do a job for someone, I am entitled to payment.

I PAID for the "entitlement" of receiving SS.

[KPN]

3. Frankly, the only real entitlements are the ones the Repugs like to grant themselves --

their entitlement to subsidies for the corporations that support them and that they invest in; their entitlement to lower tax rates for the wealthy which to a large extent includes themselves; their entitlement to pass along the wealth they've hoarded throughout their lifetimes untaxed to their kids and across generations; their entitlement to being the ruling class; etc., etc.

[bullimiami]

7. SS is running a 77B surplus this year.

The SS assets (trust fund) has about 4 TRILLION and increasing.

SS can only distribute what it brings in.
It CANNOT BORROW from other revenue.

The Govt is often borrowing against the SS surplus to fund things.

GET YOUR FILTHY REPUBLICAN GREEDY EYES OFF OF OUR HARD EARNED MONEY.

[grantcart]

27. Cash flow possibly but not an actuarial surplus

If you are adding more to the trust fund but significantly increasing future obligations because you are significantly increasing future obligations because you are adding a higher percentage of younger workers then that doesn't mean the trust fund is gaining a 'surplus'.


COVID had a temporary positive impact on SS payments (unfortunately). Could amount to $20 billion this year.

SS Trust fund cannot barrow to meet payments. If the Chief Actuarial Officer determines that the are unable to meet future needs then the law requires that payments to beneficiaries are automatically cut.

Currently it looks like that will happen in 2035.

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n3/v70n3p111.html

The concepts of solvency, sustainability, and budget impact are common in discussions of Social Security, but are not well understood. Currently, the Social Security Board of Trustees projects program cost to rise by 2035 so that taxes will be enough to pay for only 75 percent of scheduled benefits. This increase in cost results from population aging, not because we are living longer, but because birth rates dropped from three to two children per woman. Importantly, this shortfall is basically stable after 2035; adjustments to taxes or benefits that offset the effects of the lower birth rate may restore solvency for the Social Security program on a sustainable basis for the foreseeable future. Finally, as Treasury debt securities (trust fund assets) are redeemed in the future, they will just be replaced with public debt. If trust fund assets are exhausted without reform, benefits will necessarily be lowered with no effect on budget deficits.

The author is the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration.

[Traildogbob]

8. And THEIR retirement

And life long health care passed on to their spouses is ALSO OUR money. Most of them find ways to contribute nothing in taxes that pay for it. THAT is a god damned entitlement.

[Lonestarblue]

11. Republicans have always been against Social Security because it is for workers and not

the millionaire business owners who are required to pay their share of the tax. Corporations have no loopholes passed by Republicans to avoid or not pay SS and Medicare taxes. That is why Republicans object to it.

[William Seger]

12. And it's insurance, not a retirement account

People who want to make it a retirement account are only interested in making Wall Street brokers and fat cats fatter. It would flood markets with boatloads of cash chasing equity that isn't increasing in real value.

[WinstonSmith4740]

13. Remember Al Gore's "lockbox"?

He was mercilessly ridiculed for it. He was, of course, right. Republicans have been trying to get their hands on that fund for as long as I can remember. Their attitude seems to be "If we can't raid it for our purposes, we'll destroy it." Kind of like, "If I can't have you, no one can." And we all know how dangerous that attitude is.

[Martin Eden]

15. R's want to finance tax cuts for thr rich by stealing our retirement funds

Their formula is fairly simple:

Tax cuts for the rich drive up huge budget deficits.

Then they scream we have to cut spending so much on "entitlements" the nation can no longer afford.

It's should be obvious to anyone capable of critical thought this is a brazen scheme to transfer wealth from working Americans into the pockets of millionaires & billionaires who finance the political careers of these Rethuglicans.

[onecaliberal]

48. They've been doing it for a very long time. They've succeeded in a very big way.

We can't let it continue.

[Martin Eden]

51. Why can't Dems effectively nail the Rethugs on this?

The rich have bern waging and winning class warfare for decades.

[Wild blueberry]

17. Earned Benefit

I worked 46 years, earning my benefits.

Think wealthy and big business especially hate it because employers have to pay into it, too.

[GreenWave]

19. And it kicks ass on your stocks, etc.

And if you work long enough and your spouse of ten or more years doesn't, your spouse gets roughly a half share at no cost to you.

[aggiesal]

21. Nobody stole money from Social Security ...

If you don't know how Social Security works, you should look into it.
And yes it is an entitlement. We paid into it, we are entitled to it.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

23. Didn't Reagan rob it too?

[Bucky]

37. Sort of

It was during the Reagan years that they start using the social security surplus to hide the enormous budget deficits he was running up with his reckless tax cuts.

The tax cuts actually help the economy a tiny bit, but they honestly really should have been structured as tax deductions provided there was effectual measures made by employers to support and maintain the middle class.

Instead the Reagan tax cuts were just throwing spaghetti against the wall with the promise that whatever trickles down to the floor the poor can eat. Clinton balancing the budget in the 90s prove that you can grow the economy without screwing the middle class or future generations. We need to get back to that.

[allegorical oracle]

42. Believe that was the fantasy of the Laffer Curve and supply side economics, that if the rich aren't

taxed, it "trickles down" to the workers. Not so much. But my Repug acquaintances still believe it trickles down..."I ain't ever gotten a job from a poor person."

[Bucky]

43. No one gets a job from a poor person... unless they work retail.

I can tell you as an economics teacher, there is a dollop of Truth in the big fat Crock-Pot of Lies that makes up supply side economics.

Friedmanesque economics does have a particular macroeconomic impact when applied to money supply and how it affects inflation and sustainable growth rates. But when it comes to aggregate microeconomics, which means day to day living for regular families, it's Keynesian economics, aggregate demand, and its impact on real life opportunities that runs the show.

I say this because there is a high tax point at which the Laffer curve is legitimate, that increasing tax rates will reduce smaller government tax revenues. But it's somewhere around the 40 to 50% effective tax rate (not the nominal rates), which we haven't seen since the Kennedy administration.

Increasing the top marginal rate right now would dramatically lower the deficit and potentially put us on track to balanced budgets again. Sadly, that would also eventually affect the reliable income streams to the institutions lending money to the federal government. The high finance organizations that help Congress get reelected don't necessarily have an interest in seeing balanced budgets.

[allegorical oracle]

56. Interesting -- thanks for that info. It's such a complex balancing act and that's before three years

of a global pandemic was stirred into the mix.

[NowISeetheLight]

79. The Gap

If it really “trickled down” the wealth gap wouldn’t have exploded like it did after the Reagan, Bush, and Trump tax cuts.

[live love laugh]

24. REPUBLICANS think they're entitled to our money.

[usonian]

25. "Entitlement" is another word for racism.

In the party of racism's thesaurus.

[Warpy]

26. "Entitlement" is pure Newspeak that RWNJs started to use and Democrats who

weren't thinking clearly, those "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" types we were stuck with in the 80s and 90s, picked right up.

Social Security is an INSURANCE PLAN that was set up to decrease poverty among children who had lost parents, among people who became disabled through illness or accident, and people who just had too many birthdays to keep on working. We pay our premiums out of every single paycheck and if any of the above conditions affect us, the insurance pays out.

Rich SOBs have been trying to kill it off since its inception in the 1930s. Some years ago, my right wing dad, then in his mid 80s, told me not to be alarmed at hysteria from Republicans that the system was going broke or it would bankrupt the country, he'd heard the same horseshit from them since the day it was passed.

Republicans are the deadly enemy of all working people. Never forget that.

[iluvtennis]

28. You're right onecaliberal -- we worked for it - us and our employers paid for it. n/t

[Prospero1]

29. There's another factor:

Social Security is basically a pension fund.(and to some extent an insurance fund) Pension/Insurance funds are supposed to be invested so that the funds grow over time and future obligations can be met. Congress has treated Social Security taxes as if they were regular tax payments and used them up as they come in rather than investing them. This issue even come up in the 2000 election (remember the "lockboxes&quot . This is the reason for the Social Security funding crisis.

[grantcart]

31. It is an entitlement but half of the revenue is from employer contributions

[Bucky]

35. Which is fine.

They can say they made a small contribution in lieu of providing a pension directly.

We all have to pay taxes to maintain a civilized society. Preserving the dignity of retirees is one of the most basic civilizing things that define us as a community.

It's only parasites who want to have the benefits of society but not pay their fair share to maintain it

[grantcart]

38. The OP stated "Social Security is OUR money. It exists because WORKERS PAY INTO IT."

It is one of many misnomers about SS in this thread but if your are leading with "Because apparently it needs to be said" then the next statement really should be factually correct. The other misnomers are too numerous to engage but I did have to correct the one about SS having a surplus etc, see 37 above for one example.

[Bucky]

39. Not disagreeing

Just adding context to the discussion

[grantcart]

41. Right, I appreciate it

[pnwmom]

62. "Contributions" that come from compensation packages to employees.

Part of their compensation are those "contributions."

[grantcart]

64. No it is a federal mandated tax

The idea that it is paid for 100% by the employees with their money is just more of the mumbo jumbo that is widespread and frequently quoted. Half paid by the employer and half paid by the employee.

Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) taxes support the federal Social Security and Medicare programs. The total due every pay period is 15.3% of an individual's wages – half of which is paid by the employee and the other half by the employer.

Pretty straight forward. Employees pay half and employers pay half.

[pnwmom]

65. So? It is still counted in the amount that employers consider their total payment to an employee,

just like health insurance is counted in the package, even though that's ALSO mandated by the government.

[grantcart]

66. No its not. Its counted as an employer expense just like an electric bill or other business expense

You may like the way it sounds that the employee pays all, that it comes out of the employee pocket but it is an employer expense just like rent, electric bill, advertisement and so on. Matching employer contributions to a 401K would be considered part of the employee compensation because the 401k is portable and 100% of the employer/employee contributions stay with the employee.

To ascribe the employer contribution as somehow an employee contribution is just mumbo jumbo.

[Bucky]

32. The weird thing is 'entitlement' means you deserve it ...

... because you paid into it. It wouldn't be hard to fix social security. But we would need both houses of Congress back in sane hands. I'm pretty confident it'll get fixed before 2030, even provided that say legitimate deadline and not just panic mongering

[FakeNoose]

46. The Repukes have turned the word "entitlement" into something dirty & nasty

... because that's how they roll. Every American who deposits funds into a personal savings account is entitled to all the money PLUS interest. It's YOUR money, am I right? Nobody questions it, you own the account.

It's the same with our Social Security accounts, as much as the Repukes would like to change our minds. We're entitled to our money and our benefits that we've paid into for 40 (or more) years.

Entitlement isn't a dirty word. Don't let them convince you of that.

[whathehell]

49. Yes, their spin is we are illegitimately "entitled"

They, on the other hand, are very legitimately entitled to big Tax Cuts.

[Celerity]

50. Fact Sheet: SOCIAL SECURITY

https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/factsheets/basicfact-alt.pdf

[Blue Owl]

53. K and fucking R

[onetexan]

54. I plan to sue the govt if my ss benefits are taken away

It was money i cohld have invested all my working years till now.

[colorado_ufo]

55. Say it again and again and again.

Al Gore got ridiculed for saying it should be put in a "lock box" - and he was RIGHT! The Democratic Party failed to support him; he should have been our President, without the "hanging chads" crap.

[ThoughtCriminal]

59. "Entitlement" became a pejorative term

When we see somebody at the grocery store cut in the express line with 30 items (two purchases they explain), we often refer to them as "Self-entitled Jerks".

There is a huge difference between people who insist on "Two Scoops" and funds that we and our employers paid into our retirement.

Republicans want to confuse two very different things, and well they have a base that is not too bright about those kind of distinctions. They want them thinking that SS is going to line breaking "Illegals" and non-white "welfare bums".

[pnwmom]

60. It IS an entitlement. Recipients are ENTITLED to it.

The Republicans have succeeded in turning the word "entitlement" into some kind of slur. The whole reason it was called an entitlement is to distinguish it from charity.

We don't have to go along with the Rs on that. They want us to forget that we're entitled to it. They want people to think of it as another form of charity to be slashed.

[markodochartaigh]

61. I enjoy Saturday Night Live. I still watch it from time to time.

But I lost a whole lot of respect for them when they made fun of Al Gore for saying that we should put Social Security in a lockbox.

[H2O Man]

69. Recommended.

[wendyb-NC]

70. Thank you

Yes, it absolutely is our money, payed into from our very first jobs, through many years. It is not a slush fund, or a handout.

Tax the wealthy, already.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

72. House GOP releases budget that would 'destroy Social Security as we know it'

The GOP really want to gut and kill social security and medicare

Link to tweet

https://www.rawstory.com/gop-and-social-security/

A panel comprised of three-quarters of the House Republican caucus released a budget proposal on Wednesday that would raise the Social Security retirement age—cutting benefits across the board—while further privatizing Medicare and slashing taxes for the rich, a plan that Democratic lawmakers and progressive advocacy groups said is a clear statement of the GOP's warped priorities ahead of a critical spending fight this fall.

The proposal outlined by the 175-member Republican Study Committee (RSC), led by Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), would gradually raise Social Security's full retirement age—the age at which people are eligible for full Social Security benefits—to 69, up from the current level of 67 for those born in 1960 or later.

Nancy Altman, the president of Social Security Works, said the RSC budget would "destroy Social Security as we know it," using a "modest shortfall" that's more than a decade away to justify reducing benefits for millions.

"These changes would transform Social Security from an earned insurance benefit, which replaces wages lost in the event of old age, disability, or death, into a subsistence-level welfare benefit," said Altman, who noted that the RSC "rules out any options for raising revenue, such as requiring billionaires to contribute even a penny more."

[Xoan]

73. So we are entitled to it?

[Emile]

75. Republicans twisting words like entitlement and woke blows me away that people

fall for that crazy shit.

[Progressive dog]

76. It is an entitlement because we are entitled to it.

The trust fund is invested in special U.S. government bonds. The trust fund will run out of bonds at some point (about 2033) when tax receipts will only be sufficient to pay 77% of benefits. There is a separate fund for disabled workers and one for medicare. The medicare fund will run out of money in 2031 and trust fund income will only pay 89% of benefits.
We need the government to increase the taxes that pay for these funds but Republicans would rather just cut the payments.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

80. It is in the old Republican DNA and now the MAGA Republican DNA - they want to take our Social Secur

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

81. For this thread

Link to tweet