Rand Paul is usually smart about fiscal issues.
But this is a basket of shitty ideas.
They could raise the retirement age for people currently in their their twenties and thirties, but I am against means testing.
Contrary to what he says, means testing wasn’t part of the 1983 reforms.
That is true. However, I predict Congress will, at near the last minute, raise the age for both early S/S and full retirement, raise the taxable wage limit and raise the tax rate (means testing will require both houses to be Democrat, as well as the Prez). All involved will then proclaim that they have saved social security for the next 50 years, and never say that what they have really done is to make senior citizens more dependent on the federal government and make it more difficult for seniors to prepare themselves for retirement.
Social security was never meant to be a retirement plan, unfortunately a lot of people believe it is and don’t plan for their own old age will have a crappy last few years. I’ve been watching a lot of retirement videos on YouTube lately and it’s pretty scary how so many people haven’t planned for their own retirement.
Contrary to what he said, the reforms in 1983 didn’t fix shit…they just kicked the can down the road.
But, to the point, means testing is a new level of ignorant.
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How is that, exactly?
When social security was first enacted, it was deliberately designed in such a way that LOTS of people would never use it, because they were likely to die before they would be eligible beneficiaries.
It was not elderly welfare; it was an insurance program (even if a shitty one).
Today, the average life expectancy is well over a decade beyond the retirement eligible age (vs 5 years at the program’s beginning).
I realize this proposal is unpopular to emotional, ignorant (i.e. most) people and therefore is extremely unlikely to occur any time soon, but how is it a shitty idea?
Parting thought, I hope FDR is roasting in mythical hell for creating this program. He committed the federal government to promises it could not keep, and now we have this huge, unsolvable mess.
IMO means testing is bullshit. I believe they do have to raise the retirement age because life expectancy is much higher today. It should be raised for people in their twenties and thirties to give them time to prepare for the higher social security minimum age. I also have no problem with them lowering the COLA, maybe just make it half the inflation rate.
It just became like most government “great ideas”, it started out small and became bloated and out of control. The problem is once people are used to getting something for nothing it’s impossible to take it away from them, just like currently with the temporary ACA subsidies during the pandemic. Democrats shut down the government for over a month now because the temporary subsidies were set to expire and they want to keep them.
This particular portion I see the downsides a lot more.
The problem is, this program is completely unsustainable and will require major overhaul that will make absolutely nobody happy.
Rand is probably unwisely wasting his breath with statements like this and only giving his enemies ammo against him.
It is overwhelmingly unlikely anything will get done until after the slush fund is dried up and we are in urgent crisis mode.
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In this case it is not something for nothing; it is benefits they were forced to pay for.
And the insurer they were forced to pay is the most incompetent insurer imaginable.
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Means testing is income distribution by another name. Not to mention that nobody that brings it up has any specifics regarding it.
The “fix” in 1983 didn’t fix shit, it kicked the can down the road.
Raising the retirement age to 70 is BS, even if I can retire without SS earlier, there should be no reason for me to have to wait until 70 to get back my own money.
OK, then lets return to the original rates.
Wes Moss Clark’s fill in once a week just talked about that and said an increase in retirement age would be for younger workers and most likely not effect those over 50. I would say the cut off should be 40 for an increase in the minimum retirement age, anything over that would be unfair. He also said just by increasing the minimum age by a year would add at least a decade to social security’s demise.
Lol…good luck with that.
I think the problem is too many people are dependent on receiving social security and haven’t planned for their own retirement. I see it as a bonus and most people I know are planning for their own retirement with 401K’s, IRA’s and/or have a pension. My kid opened a Roth IRA when he was 19, is socking away $1,000 a month into his 401k, plus has a brokerage account and he knows he is responsible for his own retirement.
Equals…..kicking the can down the road.
Ok, instead go with the Railroad Retirement system (other government entities use this model too).
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I agree, but there never will be a permanent fix.
Nah, see this is why we never should have initiated this program to begin with. There is widespread misinformation about what the program is, and unfortunately you are no exception, despite the fact that I just explained it above.
Social security is an insurance program, like it or not. If you don’t live past a reasonable actuarially defined age (which currently does NOT describe the “retirement” age), then you don’t have a claim to make. But you still made premium payments.
You pay for auto and homeowners insurance. If you never need to make a claim, you don’t “get your money back.” Those premiums are gone. You paid them to insure against the risk of needing to make a claim.
The principle is the same here. If you want to invest your money rather than pay for insurance, then call your Reps and Senators, and demand this mangled abortion of a program be eliminated immediately, because this program does not invest your money to give back to you and never claimed to do so. Don’t give me this “getting my money back” crap. That’s trailer trash level ignorance.
I understand what it was intended for, but if 15% of my income goes into it, it no longer is any semblance of what it was created as.
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Bullshit, I have stated how to fix this multiple times.