Is the Elderly being Forced to Retire Later "Change We Can Believe In?"
By louisehartmann
Social Security has absolutely nothing to do with the federal deficit, as it's a separate self-funding program. Nonetheless, all the conservadems in the Obama Administration are talking about the deficit as an excuse to cut and partially privatize Social Security, instead of just lifing the cap on it so that Bill Gates will pay the same percentage of his pay into Social Security as you and I do. For example, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said we're on an “unsustainable path” with the deficit. Erskine Bowles, former White House chief of staff under President Clinton, and Alan Simpson, former Republican Senate whip, are co-chairs of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, were appointed by President Obama to fix it. In a Parade Magazine interview, when Simpson was asked, "are you willing to recommend cuts to Social Security?" He answered, "We’re not going to cut Social Security—we’re going to stabilize it. None of the ideas that have been presented will affect anyone over age 58. But we’re going to make the system work. As it is, it can’t sustain itself." 58? So if you're are under 59 - do not plan on retiring at 65 or 68, most likely the retirement is moving up to perhaps 70. Instead of moving the elderly out of the jobs market and allowing younger people to move in, we are forcing our elderly to work longer. This is lousy for our people - young and old - and by expanding the labor pool will only serve to further push down wages for everybody. Except the super-rich, of course. People like millionaires Bernanke, Bowles, and Simpson will continue to do just fine and pay a lot smaller percentage of their income as social security tax than average working people. This is not "change we can believe in." It's Reagan recycled. Please let your members of congress and the President know they should just lift the cap so millionaires and billionaires pay into Social Security the same as the rest of us, so the system will be solvent forever.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
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Why we can’t "afford" Social Security
In the past, some “conservatives” and now the new debt commission want to change Social Security because it is too costly. One reason it is in financial trouble could be that our government has been spending one third of the Social Security revenue on other programs since Ronald Reagan. The share of taxes paid by corporations and the wealthy is now half of what it was in the 1980’s. The Wall family billionaires have been working for the permanent repeal of the estate tax. It expired this year. This year, one billionaire’s estate of eight billion dollars owes nothing to the government. We also have tax loopholes for hedge fund managers. One manager made four billion dollars last year and only had to pay 15% tax. Corporations and the wealthy have successfully shifted the burden of taxes to the endangered middle class. This is just another step in the “race to the bottom” for the American middle class. They wish to drive average Americans to the level of the third world with cheap wages and no social safety net.