Whenever I hear a liberal MSM talking head say that Social Security is not a problem, I could spit.
Obama and Romney both declared the Social Security system sound. They lied to the American people that it will only require minor tweaks to keep it solvent for a hundred years. Liberals hate math. The Social Security System has an unfunded liability of $18 trillion. This means our politicians have promised $18 trillion more than they can possibly pay out. I guess $18 trillion is trivial to a liberal minded person like Krugman or Obama. Lucky for them that 99% of all Americans don’t understand what unfunded liability even means. The chart below gives the gory details. The Social Security system had a negative cashflow of $47.8 billion last year, after running a $48 billion deficit the year before. You may notice that 77% of this deficit was created by the SSDI program, where the depressed masses gather after their 99 weeks of unemployment run out. Do you have a headache? Are you depressed because liquor stores don’t accept food stamps? Did you pull a muscle getting on your government provided rascal? Trouble hearing your Obama phone? Then you are eligible for SSDI.
The funniest line item on the chart is the Assets at End of Year line, which shows the Social Security system having $2.7 trillion. Even using this funny number, the SSDI will be broke in three years. Al Gore told us this money was in a lockbox. They take it out of your paycheck and put it into a fund, waiting for you to retire and collect what you’re owed. Right? Wrong! If you tried to observe the vault with the $2.7 trillion on deposit, you’d be looking for a long long time. You see, the noble politicians in Washington DC took the $2.7 trillion and spent it on undeclared wars overseas, ethanol subsidies, investments in Solyndra, turtle crossings, tax breaks for hedge funds, TARP, bailing out AIG, subsidizing GM, $800 billion stimulus packages, cash for clunkers, homebuyer tax credits, predator drones, DHS, Sandy relief and thousands of other buckets of shit. There are nothing but IOU’s in the vault. The $2.7 trillion is long gone. The U.S. government had to borrow $47.8 billion to fund SS last year. They will have to borrow over $50 billion this year. There will be 10,000 per day turning 65 for the next decade. The borrowing will rise exponentially. If the $2.7 trillion actually existed, why would we need to borrow?
The trust funds are required by law to hand over all surplus revenues to the Treasury and the Treasury then provides “special issue” non-marketable bonds—essentially electronic IOUs—to the trust funds in return for the cash. These “IOUs” become part of the national debt. When the Treasury pays “interest” that increases the value of the Social Security Trust Funds it does so by increasing the number of IOUs it owes the trust funds. When the Social Security program runs a net cash flow deficit, as it has in the last three fiscal years, the Treasury needs to borrow cash from the “public” to keep the program funded.
Does this look like a trend that is going to reverse itself or level out with 10,000 Boomers turning 65 years old every freaking day?
These costs will be exceeding $1 trillion per year in the near future. Meanwhile, the number of workers per retiree will continue to fall as it has for decades. In 1945 there were 42 workers per retiree. In 1965 there were 5 workers per retiree. Today there are less than 2.5 workers per retiree. There are only 1.6 full time private workers for every one retiree. With Obamacare working its magic of destroying jobs across the land, there is much less revenue going into the Social Security System. The system is unsustainable and ignoring the problem will not make it go away.
A recent article on Bloomberg below barely scratches the surface of the massive fraud going on in the SSDI program. Those who think we owe them a living are faking disabilities by the millions. The number of annual applications were flat at 2.1 million per year between 2004 and 2007. They now exceed 3 million per year, as the Obama administration has actively attempted to get more people on the dole. In a matter of a couple years, there were suddenly 40% more people getting disabled. Amazing!!!
Shockingly, as 1.4 million people have been kicked off the 99 week unemployment rolls, the number of people applying for SSDI skyrocketed. Just because the scumbags on Wall Street and in the rest of corporate America commit fraud on a massive scale does not mean we should look the other way when lowlifes in our community do the same thing on a smaller scale. The working middle class pays the bill for the cost of both frauds. More than 90% of all the people who go onto SSDI never go back to work. This program was supposed to be short term until people could recover and go back to work. There are now 8.83 million people so disabled, they supposedly can’t work. There are only 12 million officially unemployed people in the country. The government is so incompetent, they barely check the applications for SSDI. Anyone with an ounce of brain power (this disqualifies anyone on MSNBC) knows that at least 50% of the people on SSDI are capable of some form of employment.
The Social Security system is already broke. The money is gone. Pretending all is well is for fools and there are millions of them in this country. If someone within the leadership of this country was honest with the American people we could fix the Social Security system. A combination of age adjustments, means testing, and reconfiguration of income levels subject to the tax could make it viable. Too bad Washington is inhabited by snakes, scumbags, liars and knaves. Corrupt lowlife politicians, lying liberal media whores, and a delusional populace will ignore the Social Security problem until it becomes a crisis of epic proportions. Then they will propose wrong solutions and implement them badly. Some things are easily predictable.
llpoh:
It’s classism or class-ism not classicism
A biased or discriminatory attitude based on distinctions made between social or economic classes. From Dictionary.com
I defend SS against those who would eliminate it in favor of war spending and corporate welfare. Your “Administrator” is not one of those it turns out. My own political values often agree with the Libertarian point of view. Class-ism like racism or feminism, keeps us divided when we should be united against the whores and traitors who have taken over out political and financial institutions. .
Administrator:
“We hate Wall Street bankers, neo-cons, welfare cheats, Democrats and Republicans.”
Democrats and Republicans are Fascists and Imperialists. They have turned our Republic into a Police state. They have turned our chief executive into Pharaoh or Napoleon. They are owned and operated by an international Oligarchy that does not owe allegiance to any nation. The Democrats and Republicans job is not to govern on behalf of citizens. It is to redistribute wealth from the working classes to the oligarchy.
Only the working class, which includes all ages genders, colors, religions and ethnicities, has the numbers and the mussel to overthrow the Fascists. We must put aside our petty differences long enough to take back our government. When that is done we can settle our differences through honest elections.
Just a point of interest. From the founding of the Social Security program until perhaps a year and a half ago all politicians and the news media talked about the Social Security Trust Fund. Who has heard a word about this Trust Fund from a Politician or major media outlet in about the last year? The Social Security Trust fund is not mentioned by these people anymore. I suppose that is because, as is pointed out above, the money taken out of every ones payroll taxes to go into this Trust Fund was exceeded in the past two years by the money paid out in benefits. Why hasn’t the American population noticed this fact? Why have Social Security recipients and payers into the system not asked their president and federal represetatives and senators what happened to the Social Security Trust Fund? Why are Budget talks even mentioning cutbacks to the Social Security Program when it has its own separate Trust Fund? Virtually all politicians of both parties have been lying to the American people for the past 50 years. When is the American public going to hold all these politicians accountable for the now clear lies, regarding the Social Security Trust Fund, they have been telling the public for 50 years? It is a shame that Senator Paul Tsongas, who was telling the truth about the non-existence of the trust fund 25 or so years ago, developed cancer and had to pull out of his run for the Presidency. Awfully convenient though, for all those lying politicians.
I have paid into social security for 36 years. I am going to be PISSED if you jerks take it away when I turn 66, or if you say, “oops, you’re going to have to work another 10 years to get full benefits”….in the industry I am in, they routinely get rid of men in their late 50’s & 60’s and hire 22 y.o. clueless guys to replace us. Nobody hires people in their 60’s. If you wankers in congress who are reading this up the retirement age and reduce benefits, be sure and pass laws providing for “shotgun wedding” type hiring policies and police to force the corporations to hire people in their late 50’s, 60’s, & 70’s. Stop screwing with my retirement!!!
signed: pissed in Texas
jknbt
Who are “you jerks”?
Referring to himself. Another taker. Probably has saved twelve cents for his retirement.
“you jerks” refers to the people who think that they can take away the safety nets built up for the last 80 years to help people in genuine need. If they really think there should be no safety nets, they should go live in India for a few years. Yes, there are abuses and abusers, but these are the people who would rather see their crippled grandmother starve in the winter cold in the dark rather than pay their fair share of taxes.
Those same jerks are blind to the fact that the bankers’ cabal and globalists are behind putting the country into hopeless debt. Our congress is the best that money can buy. The only solution will eventually be to turn to the same bankers for help. They will own the country after they create hyperinflation and loan us their freshly printed federal reserve monopoly money to pay off the debt.
“you jerks” refer to you, Lipoh, for your smart mouth. I have lived modestly and saved all my life only to see my wealth disappear into the wide mouth of inflation. That combined with the last two stock market collapses the bankers engineered, not to mention the one they are creating right now, has stolen a big chunk of my retirement money.
“you jerks” refer the the wealthy people that own the banks that own the federal reserve. The good citizens of the usa should nationalize the fed and confiscate the wealth of the bankers’ trust jerks who want to surrender our country’s sovereignty to the UN.
“you jerks” refers to the corrupt government officials that have sold off our gold. You have an article on this blog that says that the usa has the biggest gold reserves of all. BULLSHIT! You clueless jerks seem to be unaware that Jimmy Carter and the democrats sold off our gold. Fort Knox is empty. Where did the gold all go?
Do the jerks also refer to the people who pissed away $800 billion on Keynesian stimulus pork? How about the $80 billion they are about to piss away on Sandy relief pork?
How about congressmen who promised $200 trillion of entitlements without figuring out how to pay for it?
I hate to tell you, but it isn’t your Social Security money. They spent every dime already. It was nothing but a tax.
Life sucks. Tough shit. Deal with it. You are probably one of those douchebags that didn’t save for their retirement.
“Life sucks. Tough shit. Deal with it. You are probably one of those douchebags that didn’t save for their retirement.”
if i didn’t find this site informative and useful, i probably would take AWD’s advice and go somewhere else. i have come to realize that since these are libertarians posting here, liberal sympathy is not to be found here. ok, i can deal with that. too bad for newbies when they don’t know that.
fyi, lipo, i do have 12 cents saved up for retirement. how are you going to deal with it if your nest egg is inflated away as in AWD’s little red hen 2012 story? you guys – meaning you – are not totally safe either, smugness notwithstanding.
douchen
I deal with reality. Sympathy doesn’t pay the bills. Congress spent your SS money. It’s that simple. There are nothing but IOUs in the lockbox. That is a fact. They can only be repaid if the US Treasury can continue to borrow to pay them off. At our current trajectory, honoring the SS obligations to anyone under 45 years old seems highly unlikely.
“I have paid into social security for 36 years. I am going to be PISSED if you jerks take it away when I turn 66, or if you say, “oops, you’re going to have to work another 10 years to get full benefits”….”
Well then I guess you are going to be pissed. I predict that the world will not take much notice of it.
Every time I hear the subject of Social Security funding being “sound” come up, all I can think of is that climactic scene in the movie Dumb and Dumber where the prime villain opens up the briefcase that is supposed to contain the ransom of $1 million in cash, only to find it full of IOUs.
“$325,000 for a car. I’d hold on to that one….”
admin, that message is what i found interesting on this site a few years ago, this site would be more popular numerically speaking if your message of tough love were more prominent, as it is, when people get slapped around for trying to hold on to the illusion of security in social security, (there is a certain financial jockstrap mentality floating around) i think they get turned off on your whole message. i have done my part to share this site with my nephew.
douchen
TBP is what it is.
I’m just a guy typing his opinions on a blog.
I don’t really care whether I offend anyone.
I don’t care if TBP is popular. There are dozens of things I should do if I want to increase visitor counts.
I’ll write what I think and people can read it or not. I really don’t give a flying fuck.
here’s a story to put your libertarian foolishness in perspective:
a man was visiting at the local insane asylum. He found a patient outside on a day pass with a shovel furiously digging away at the foundation. The visitor said, “hey, don’t you realize you are digging up the basement?” The patient said back, “oh, it will be all right, I live on the fourth floor.”
so go ahead and have your fun. Yep, it will be bad if I retire 8 years from now, and there is no social security check to help pay the bills. You insane people need to realize that you are in line too, only a few more than 8 years down the line. If all I can get out of the tax thieves in washington is a skimpy social security check, that just means that all you can look forward to is that much less, namely $0.00 a month.
the old people dependent on their social security check so they don’t starve or freeze in the winter are not the problem. After a lifetime of giving, investing, saving, and paying taxes, you people have NO RIGHT to call them “takers” like they were some sort of selfish greedy maggots for asking social security to help them in their old age. Stop with your baseless insults.
The problem is the bankers’ trust cabal directing their hireling servants in congress to spend money we don’t have for weapons we don’t need, that don’t work, and are obsolete by the time the military deploys them. Add on top of that a baseless war in Iraq and a useless war in Afganistan, and the country is now $16T in debt. The only people that won in either war are the military industrial contractors and their investment bankers.
The country would have all the money it needs if the abortion mills in this country hadn’t killed 55 million people in the last 40 years. Think of it, 55 million more tax payers paying into the system, and 55 million more customers to support our consumer economy. Yep, that’s right, 55 million lives have been unjustly taken since the supreme court passed legislation in 1973 with its 5 to 4 vote to allow abortions. Think about it.
blah blah blah and your starving to death bullshit tripe.
I’ve saved my whole life. I will not require SS to sustain me. It is a fucking insurance program you idiot. It was never meant to be a retirement program.
The tax rate was 1% and the retirement age was set at 65 when life expectancy was 63 when FDR created SS. It was created so widows and orphans wouldn’t be destitute.
Your just another card carrying member of the senior citizen free shit army that doesn’t give a fuck about future generations as long as you get yours.
FOR THICK HEADED MORONS WHO DON’T GET IT YET
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jknbt wrote: “The country would have all the money it needs if the abortion mills in this country hadn’t killed 55 million people in the last 40 years. Think of it, 55 million more tax payers paying into the system, and 55 million more customers to support our consumer economy. Yep, that’s right, 55 million lives have been unjustly taken since the supreme court passed legislation in 1973 with its 5 to 4 vote to allow abortions. Think about it.”
Pure drivel, the type that could only be written by a right-wing statist who seeks to use the heavy hand of the state to control others to their own behavioral norms and mistakes the tertiary economy of abstract finance as being the whole economy while ignoring the primary economy of natural resources and secondary economy of finished goods and services.
Abortions happened before 1973 — and in some states they were already legal. My own grandparents considered aborting my uncle because my grandmother almost died during childbirth with my mother (and that was 1945). Don’t like abortion? Then stop trying to use the power of the state to enforce your “morality” over others and volunteer and help those who are confronted with the possibility of bringing a child into the world that they are not prepared to raise for any number of reasons, or for reasons like my grandparents faced (they were worried my grandmother would die trying to have another child).
As for the “consumer” economy — what other planets out there are we going to mine for all the resources that our current path is taking us down? We’re currently destroying the planet’s ecosystems, so going back to what we’ve come to expect as normal just ain’t gonna happen — no matter how much you might scream, jump up and down, and gnash your teeth.
“After a lifetime of giving, investing, saving, and paying taxes, you people have NO RIGHT to call them “takers” like they were some sort of selfish greedy maggots for asking social security to help them in their old age.”
You old folks always blame the government for stealing your money out of the trust fund. But that’s precisely what YOU ELECTED THEM to do. You wanted all the stuff those dollars could buy, but didn’t want to pay higher taxes for it. Now you want “the government” to pay back the trust fund, even though you know perfectly well the government does not have its own money, YOU will not be working or paying taxes, and the price would be paid by the young.
If you wanted a strong, stable, solvent trust fund, then you shouldn’t have been asleep at the wheel. It was decided as far back as 1960 that the government has no contractual obligation to pay Social Security benefits, and the trust fund started being tapped at about the same time. It was your government. You elected it.
Like Admin, I already know I’m not getting anything from SSI and am planning accordingly. Also, Admin makes a good point that it was an insurance program. When you get to the end of your life and your house hasn’t burned down, do you demand a return of all your homeowners’ insurance premiums?
jacknabit – In Jacob’s Ladder, Louis, the main character’s friend, quotes Quinn: “You know what he [Quinn] said? The only thing that burns in TBP is the part of you that won’t let go of your delusional life; your SS hopes, your Medicare expectations. TBP burns ’em all away. But they’re not punishing you, he said. They’re freeing your soul. … If you’re frightened of dying and holding on, you’ll see devils tearing your life away. But if you’ve made your peace then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the false promises of the government”.
From the Washington Post:
More than one in four American workers with 401(k) and other retirement savings accounts use them to pay current expenses, new data show. The withdrawals, cash-outs and loans drain nearly a quarter of the $293 billion that workers and employers deposit into the accounts each year, undermining already shaky retirement security for millions of Americans.
A report due out this week from the financial advisory firm HelloWallet found that more than one in four workers dip into retirement funds to pay their mortgages, credit card debt or other bills. Those in their 40s have been the most likely culprits — one-third are turning to such accounts for relief.
Fresh data from Vanguard, one of the nation’s largest 401(k) managers, show a 12 percent increase in the number of workers who took loans against their retirement accounts or withdrew money outright since 2008.
The most common way Americans tap their retirement funds is through loans, which must be repaid with interest. Those who withdraw money face hefty penalties. In most cases, they not only incur a 10 percent federal tax penalty but also pay income taxes. The costs are financially harmful to families even as money-management firms reap massive fees for handling retirement accounts that ultimately are not used for retirement.
jknbt and douchen in high school:
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No wonder they’re such dipshit pussies
hey administrator, I am not an idiot, but you are obviously on the payroll for the bloodsucking bankers’ cabal and their industrialist tools. The only purpose of this blog is to stir up support for the type of legislation that will have 88 y.o. grandmothers starving to death in unheated apartments while freezing in the winter in the dark…..and forever why? so that the money that should be spent to help out that poor woman will be instead available for the bankers to loan to the industrialists to fund yet another unneeded war fought with overpriced weapons and $600 hammers and $1000 toilet seats, since that is the going price when the defense dept. buys them.
I know that social security is not a retirement plan. I have saved and invested heavily all my life. I have never asked the gov’t for anything, even when laid off from a crappy job. I am just sick of congress and the fed taking my wealth away. I am sick of the bankers’ trust engineering stock market collapses like they did in 2008 so they can get richer at my considerable expense. I will be working as long as I can work. The trouble is, they routinely get rid of workers in their 60’s in the industry I am in. I guess I will be bagging groceries or something with a 90% cut in pay once they get around to me. Don’t mock, you will be there too soon enough.
you call me “idiot”. I call you a sellout and a tool who is just posing as an anti-government anti-tax libertarian.
goodbye. your blog is a load of crap. better things to do with my time than to debate with a sell-out tool that doesn’t see that you are pissing in the well that you will someday drink out of.
Latest news: congress is going to “borrow” (a.k.a. steal) the retirement annuity money of federal employees to help pay the shortfall coming with the debt ceiling crisis. how long until they “borrow” from the 401K’s out there? including yours, mr. tool.
jknbt
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out jackoff.
Conservative neo-con asshole who probably thinks $1 trillion of military spending is just fine as long as he can suck off the teat of SS to get his fair share.
It’s fuckwads like you with your drivel about starving grandmas that make me consider having an IQ test for commenters.
hey Pirate Jo, same to you as my comments to mr. tool the administrator. There are 320 million people in this country, so it makes perfect sense for you to apply personal blame to me for the sins of congress the last 80 years.
I have always voted for common sense conservative candidates. I live in one of the most conservative states in the union. I would be delighted for this state to secede, but it won’t happen. Tried it in 1861, didn’t work….the union army forced us to rejoin their republic with paper money, confiscatory taxes, and congressmen spending my money.
If you really believe that the state of the union is all my fault, you are delusional and should seek help.
my solution is to get my 401k money as soon as I can get my hands on it, convert it to gold, and immigrate to a country that is not completely sold out to the devil like this one is. Even the phillipenes has a sound bullion backing for their money. I may spend my retirement in Belize or Luzon growing bananas. Anywhere but this place.
goodbye. enjoy ranting away like someone reads or cares for your opinions anyway.
jknbt, you are never going to agree with anyone all of the time. You think spending money on an 88 year old woman whose own family has abandoned her is the ‘right’ thing to do. I think $6,000 plus per month for nursing home care is a ‘luxury’ we can’t afford.
Its not that I don’t like little old ladies its just that she had her day and it has come and gone. We need to withdraw medical care from the elderly and only offer palliative care for pain. Life costs money and you need to invest money wisely which is why I disagree with you and Administrator on military spending. American citizens derive real benefit from having the most powerful military on earth. Its not all Barbara Boxer’s $1000 toilet seat on a B-1 bomber. It is the ability of that B-1 bomber to put 30,000 lbs of precision guided munitions on a target 1500 miles away that makes the world willing to extend us credit to, inter alia, pay for 88 year old woman to live in warm apartment and see the doctor tomorrow.
jknbt says “ou jerks” refers to the people who think that they can take away the safety nets built up for the last 80 years to help people in genuine need.” Bwahahahaha! Those nets are now filled with lazy good for nothing takers. That system simply does not work.
That was me above. Me and my smart mouth.
jknbt wants money for the 88 year old granny, but is tired of the government taking his money away. Bwahahahahaha! That is rich – I guess he doesn’t understand that they need his money to take care of granny. And that the promises to pay for the next generation of grannies cannot be met, as the vault is empty. He is like all the rest – he wants goodies, but does not want to pay for them.
We would all like to see all of the grannies taken care of. But fact is, a welfare system to do it simply is not viable. The fact is, people have to take care of themselves, because if you allow them not to do so, it leads to collapse. It is a harsh but true reality.
AWD, thanks for the school pic above! yes i’m a penis/pussy, not sure which you meant. i qualify because i am an old boomer, all the sturm und drang is gone, maybe it’s just low T, whatever. i owe you for saying i don’t believe you’re a real doc but i gave you thumbs up for the red chicken tale.
thanks for the disrespect ’cause there for a while i was thinking i should hang my head in shame in front of you exalted priests of non-takerhood. perhaps i may yet make it to achieving non-taker status.
douchen & jknbt
Sympathy don’t feed the bulldog. I got my SocSec card in 1948 and believed the story that came with it. It took a while but I learned the ugly truth — and I post it for people who don’t read the facts, just continue with the “I paid in it for all my life”, whatever, who have NEVER looked at reality. You have believed a myth and continue to carry on as though it was real.
No, this place is not Politically correct; nor does it have some nefarious agenda just because you don’t like statements of reality and fact, and would prefer to shoot the messengers.
You should be angry with the government that has lied to you all your life. And mark my words, your children and grandchildren who will putatively pay off the insurmountable debt will NOT do so, and will curse you and your ilk for being gullible enough to listen to government lies.
“You have believed a myth and continue to carry on as though it was real.” i’ll buy that but you got me wrong on the other stuff, i was trying to explain to jknbt that sympathy is a liberal trait but here, a punch in the mouth is the kindest way a libertarian can set you straight. and once you’ve been disabused of your illusions, you begin to taste true freedom.
BTW, AWD, if you really want to do me a favor – post a personalized pic of that kid with the books getting nutted, that’s me. make it out to juan santos. thanks bunches.
Since when did ‘we the people’ have a choice as to pay SS it or not pay it? You, me, and almost everyone else on this chatboard. I worked and paid into the SS silliness since 1968…..and I don’t remember being asked ONCE by the US government if I liked it or even agreed with it. Somebody else decided for us. Methinks it was (most likely) the same fuckers that pissed it all away. (Just a wild guess on my part.)
A lot of people don’t know that the “unfunded liability” owed to Social Security is actually a debt owed to the Social Security fund by the U.S. government. The law, the federal government has to pay back what it borrows from a fund. To pay back this legitimate debt owed to the workers who contributed, given the fiscal mess caused by the banks and the hedge funds, the government might have to raise taxes on the very wealthy. This can be done via an income tax change or more simply by requiring the very wealthy to pay Social Security(FICA) taxes on all their wages, as the rest of us do. Solves the problem for the next 70 years. Senators Sanders and Franken have introduced such a bill.
As for Medicare there are many ways to save money without making it harder for Grandma to see a doctor. Cut the amounts skimmed off by the drug companies, the equipment companies and the testing business. Let Medicare negotiate prices, as they are currently forbidden to do.
By the way retiring on a disability is often a tough struggle, involving delay and lawyer expenses. It also means getting way less than retiring on a regular pension. Some people will abuse any system but I don’t lose sleep over disability fraud. It is drop in the bucket compared to the banking fraud that put our country on the ropes.
I have no problem with the disability deadbeats being thrown off the welfare rolls as long as the whores calling themselves single mothers and their bastard children are thrown out in the cold also along with the retired military and federal retired deadbeats. Then we can get the nation back to work and balance the budget. thanks