A Big Day’s Coming ( Mitt Romney and Social Security)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/opinion/collins-a-big-days-coming.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=general

By GAIL COLLINS
Published: February 29, 2012

On Sunday, we commemorate one of the most seminal moments in American history, the inauguration of President William Henry Harrison.

snip: The William Henry Harrison story is also an excellent opening for a discussion about one of the policy issues in the current Republican presidential campaign. It’s about Mitt Romney and Social Security.

Romney gave an important speech about his economic agenda recently that hardly got any attention from the news media because reporters were distracted by the fact that Romney spoke to an audience of about 1,200 in a stadium that seats 65,000. It is small-mindedness like this that ruins presidential elections. Would that we were back in the days of William Henry Harrison, when the public worried about important things, like which candidate’s supporters could roll a huge ball plastered with campaign posters through more towns.

Anyhow, among other things, Romney called for fixing part of the long-term Social Security imbalance by raising the retirement age. Then, in an effort to make a human connection with his audience, he mentioned that his wife has two Cadillacs and, really, that was pretty much the end of the day.

FULL story at link.

[peacebird]

1. Fix social security by lifting the cap. Right now everone pays in ON THE FIRST $108k they earn...

Anything above that is FREE.
Ask not that your managers, doctors, lawyers, and CEO types continue paying into SS on the dollars they earn OVER that magic number.... WHY NOT?

That would likely contribute quite nicely to making it healthier without raising the retirement age. Also raising the retirement age has several bad consequences: more expensive workers, less upward mobility for younger workers, oh - and since companies have figured out how to solve the first (layoffs seem to hit older workers hard) NOW kids have to compete with grayhairs to get jobs hawking burgers and fries...

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. That's the solution that is never offered up.

The only solution that makes any sense.

But the one percenters will not want to pay more for something they clearly will not have to rely on.

[peacebird]

3. Please call your congresscritters and suggest this. Seriously.

[Selatius]

4. There's no money to be made in the private sector by offering up that solution.

At least with privatization schemes and private accounts, people in the business world stand a chance to get a cut of that money. Hell, just raising the retirement age would benefit the private sector because they would have another argument to keep SS taxes low. Look, there are fewer people on SS today. That's because half of them died before reaching the mark, but we at least got to keep more of our income because they turned those SS tax holidays into permanent vacations.