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Showing Original Post only (View all)Look folks, politics aside, we might have to cut SS benefits 30 years from now... [View all]
...if we don't cut them now.
And as for why cutting them now is better than maybe cutting them in 30 years... well, it just is!
The security of my retirement depends on this. (I sunk my life savings into Purina stock.)
Seriously, though...
Meanwhile, an aging population will eventually (over the course of the next 20 years) cause the cost of paying Social Security benefits to rise from its current 4.8 percent of G.D.P. to about 6 percent of G.D.P. To give you some perspective, thats a significantly smaller increase than the rise in defense spending since 2001, which Washington certainly didnt consider a crisis, or even a reason to rethink some of the Bush tax cuts.
So where do claims of crisis come from? To a large extent they rely on bad-faith accounting. In particular, they rely on an exercise in three-card monte in which the surpluses Social Security has been running for a quarter-century dont count because hey, the program doesnt have any independent existence; its just part of the general federal budget while future Social Security deficits are unacceptable because hey, the program has to stand on its own.
It would be easy to dismiss this bait-and-switch as obvious nonsense, except for one thing: many influential people including Alan Simpson, co-chairman of the presidents deficit commission are peddling this nonsense.
And having invented a crisis, what do Social Securitys attackers want to do? They dont propose cutting benefits to current retirees; invariably the plan is, instead, to cut benefits many years in the future. So think about it this way: In order to avoid the possibility of future benefit cuts, we must cut future benefits. O.K.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/opinion/16krugman.html?_r=0
So where do claims of crisis come from? To a large extent they rely on bad-faith accounting. In particular, they rely on an exercise in three-card monte in which the surpluses Social Security has been running for a quarter-century dont count because hey, the program doesnt have any independent existence; its just part of the general federal budget while future Social Security deficits are unacceptable because hey, the program has to stand on its own.
It would be easy to dismiss this bait-and-switch as obvious nonsense, except for one thing: many influential people including Alan Simpson, co-chairman of the presidents deficit commission are peddling this nonsense.
And having invented a crisis, what do Social Securitys attackers want to do? They dont propose cutting benefits to current retirees; invariably the plan is, instead, to cut benefits many years in the future. So think about it this way: In order to avoid the possibility of future benefit cuts, we must cut future benefits. O.K.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/opinion/16krugman.html?_r=0
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Look folks, politics aside, we might have to cut SS benefits 30 years from now... [View all]
cthulu2016
Dec 2012
OP
Why don't we instead talk about de-coupling the means by which PUBLIC debt is financed from
patrice
Dec 2012
#10
One does wonder how this rhetoric looks to younger generations. Link please? I need to read up.
patrice
Dec 2012
#2
Right on! & I think one route that would help would be to stop talking exclusively in terms of
patrice
Dec 2012
#68
As members of a younger generation, we have to remember there was a lot of history before us
jeff47
Dec 2012
#81
Agree. I'm betting that 20/30 years a 8% or so cumulative "cut" from Chained-CPI will look good.
Hoyt
Dec 2012
#16
Wow, pass it on to next generation. If we think it is going to happen, why do that?
Hoyt
Dec 2012
#19
I'm sorry, the younger folks are in essence paying our benefits. We have to consider them.
Hoyt
Dec 2012
#76
Actually, it's not a Tbag talking point. A poster right here said cut the next generations benefits
Hoyt
Dec 2012
#80
Cut it all is OK with me, but it's a drop in the bucket. As to your last line, have a good life.
Hoyt
Dec 2012
#85
Okay, so where is that 30 year figure coming from? Shouldn't we go after that source?
patrice
Dec 2012
#13
Colbert is a genius, but yeah, supposedly RWers think he's really one of them. What kills me is that
Dark n Stormy Knight
Dec 2012
#18
"Its not things that are lacking, regardless of growth and demographics, its fair distribution." +1
HiPointDem
Dec 2012
#31
Hahahahaha... you have a dry sense of humor. We need to raise revenue and protect it all. Done.
The Wielding Truth
Dec 2012
#14
Not me, but I'm not for f*cking over my generation and our children either
democrattotheend
Dec 2012
#21
it's your post characterizing the OP as right-wing talking points i refer to.
HiPointDem
Dec 2012
#42
Link to any member of the GOP saying that cutting benefits now to prevent future benefit cuts
HiPointDem
Dec 2012
#47
This is nonsense. SS needs only two things to make it solvent for the next 75 -
sabrina 1
Dec 2012
#34
Exactly. And ss has nothing to do with the budget. It is all about reps
Evergreen Emerald
Dec 2012
#38
The TF already has over $2.5 trillion dollars in securities in it. How about the general fund pay
HiPointDem
Dec 2012
#43
Engage with reality, would you? Congress is debating MORE TAX CUTS along with SS cuts.
Romulox
Dec 2012
#87
BUT their math doesn’t add up, and their hostility isn’t really about dollars and cents.
Jefferson23
Dec 2012
#58
You heard them--they don't expect to be alive in 30 years, so they don't care...
Romulox
Dec 2012
#89
+++1 & put the money saved into developing authentically NEW forms of entrepreneurship which
patrice
Dec 2012
#70
if we cut our military spending in half, we'd still spend more than the next 4 countries combined
Major Nikon
Dec 2012
#79
That WOULD make it easier to talk about DEVELOPMENT, e.g. HR 676 Expanded & Improved Medicare for
patrice
Dec 2012
#72
Immigrants will one day want to collect Social Security, themselves. Either the plan is sound
Romulox
Dec 2012
#92