quote:
Originally posted by teyates:
I think the only way this could ever be done is in an incremental fashion. You pick an age and say everyone who is younger than that age is not eligible for the SS, and all of those above that age will be part of it. You continue to withhold for those who will qualify, and you do not do so for those who will not. they must however show some form of retirement planning or face a penalty, lest we end up with people who spent every dime they made and never made any plans.
Other things that need to be looked at as well include endowment for arts, public funding for drug research, aid to other countries, and reevaluating the laws in regards to drug use and the punishement for such. I bet 40% of the people in prison today are there because of drug crimes. The war on drugs in this country is costly, and far the most part useless.
A couple of points of agreement and disagreement here with me.
It all sounds good to "do away with SS so everybody can invest for themselves" but the truth is , as you pointed out, too many people will NOT save for their retirement. I am old enough to have known people who were too old at the time SS was put into place to have been in that system, and for them life was a mixture of living off of welfare and the generosity of their kids.
SS did provide some dignity to the elderly as it gave those who were not able , or who just would not, save for retirement some amount of Independence in their senior years.
I also agree with you on Nixon's "war on drugs". Just the expense involved in the "war" against marijuana cost us millions , maybe billions each year, all to try to eradicate a weed.
On the other hand, most people seem to attack and have a real problem with "entitlements" programs. The thing they don't realize is that except for SS, and Medicare (which to date are still self-sustaining according to law), the real big expense to this country is the Defense budget, and very few want to talk about that.
We as taxpayers WASTE hundreds of billions of dollars each year buying weapons the Pentagon does not need or want. However, when we build a fighter, we have to build a replacement engine for it, although we have thousands on the shelf. Why you may ask, well the jet engines are made in Bohener's district and he has protected that industry. The Pentagon does not want or need them but we keep making them anyway. (And who said the government can't make jobs
) Actually most of Defense IS a jobs bill and it has gone on for years and years.
As far as "entitlements" go, just google up any years federal budget. The "safety net" programs are so small that if they were cut altogether, it would not make much difference in the overall scope of things, but there are those who keep hounding like that is the reason we are in the mess we are in.
As to the fiscal sanity of the current Republican bunch , keeping the "Bush" tax cuts on the top 2% like they are holding up a bill giving the rest of us tax breaks for, will add $700 Billion that we will have to borrow from China, to the national debt. If they (Boner & co) keep this up, where is the fiscal sanity ? I ask you, where ???