Today is the 73rd anniversary of Social Security.
By on Aug 14th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Today is the 73rd anniversary of Social Security.
Seventy-three years ago today, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. Since then, “Social Security has been a pay-as-you-go public pension scheme in which the current generation of workers’ taxes go to pay benefits to present retirees and, in exchange, future generations of workers will pay for current workers when they retire,” notes Matt Yglesias. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who received $24,000 in benefits last year, believes this system is an “absolute disgrace.” Watch it:
“Maybe his answer to the retirement crisis is to do as he does: work until you’re well into your 70s. Working becomes the new retirement with Sen. McCain,” writes Christian Weller of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
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“pension scheme” ?
couldn’t you come up with a better word?
August 14th, 2008 at 10:00 amthe righties are gonna love it!
It’s a disgrace that mccain is hypocritically drawing from a socialist program but all republcians feel entitled.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:00 amhttp://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/scheme
August 14th, 2008 at 10:02 amToday is the 73rd anniversary of Social Security.»
Let’s see to it that there isn’t another one…as long as my buddies and I get ours.
John McCain ‘08
August 14th, 2008 at 10:02 amMcCain’s answer to the retirement crisis is to marry a millionaire. Hey, it’s working for him!
August 14th, 2008 at 10:03 amI agree, katy. I’m weary of the use of that word.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:05 amI don’t begrudge McCain his Social Security income — after all, he paid into the system and he’s entitled to it.
But he would look a lot less hypocritical if he’d either refrain from biting the hand that feeds him, or refuse to be fed by the hand he’s biting.
I heard a rumor once that Ronald Reagan refused to take his Social Security benefits because he claimed he didn’t need the money and that others did (a rather odd stance for a guy who felt everybody needed to stand on their own two feet). But I can’t find any verification of this. Does anybody know for sure?
August 14th, 2008 at 10:05 amdo us all a favor, TP – delete my comments after changing that word.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:05 amk?
no one will ever know… if you hurry.
I have to argue with the notion that John McCain is working.
He’s touring the United States on an RV, and hasn’t been into the office in months. Sounds like retirement to me…
August 14th, 2008 at 10:10 amMcCain: “But I don’t mind taking a piece of this ‘DISGRACE’ to my bank”.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:12 amYoung people cared in the early 1940s to pay into the system.
Young people cared in 50s and 60s to pay when benefits were expanded.
Why have the children of those generations become so averse to taxes as if to pinch every penny to support conspicuous consumption over important protections and the well-being of others? Why do they seem to have that same uptight outlook for their own children? My children playing into Social Security!? My children fighting the unjust war I support!? I don’t think so!?
Irony is, higher taxes (on the wealthiest) provided these anti-tax activists with a stable childhood.
It seems few people remember what it takes to uphold a democracy.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:16 amMethinks the failings of SS have more to do with co-mingling of funds than a bad system.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:16 amI love it when Johnny McPlanecrash describes the Social Security program as “antiquated”. He does realize that the program is only one year older than he is doesn’t he?
August 14th, 2008 at 10:24 amIf you think about it, conservative republicanism’s primary goal, above all else, is to dismantle every facet of FDR’s New Deal, a part of which of course is SS.
But the fact is, the New Deal turned this country around and helped make it a superpower, by enabling millions to get back to work, rural electrification, banking regulations, the CCC, the TVA, you name it.
It should be very obvious to anyone that cares to think that the New Deal was a GOOD THING.
So why have republicans been trying to dismantle the programs of the New Deal for 6 to 7 decades now? What is their alternative?
August 14th, 2008 at 10:26 amcitizen_pain Says:
“What is their alternative?”
Winner take all?
August 14th, 2008 at 10:29 amlets see…
August 14th, 2008 at 10:35 amAMerican workers pay taxes all their lives inorder to ensure some form of retirement in old age ….
2/3 of International corporations based and doing business here pay 0 taxes …….
who recieves the more wealfare and subsidies , even as they given incentives to move American manufacturing overseas to countries without basic protections for workers or a living wage?
Who is better represented among our elected officials ?
The disgrace is our present corporate welfare system for large corporations paying NO taxes and John mcCain !
Reign in the ghost of milton friedman and the control of the once great American democracy by multi billion dollar international corporations who alone are represented in government !
This is a non-story except it exposes mccain to be a fool. Not even republicans in everyday life want social security to be dismantled…..they tried it and it blew up in thier face. Let mccain rant, it works for me.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:36 amfreeman Says:
A link verifying your thoughts. Companies don’t pay taxes
August 14th, 2008 at 10:38 amThat was more of a rhetorical question. I’m sure they consider the New Deal to be socialism in disguise. After all, any time the government is involved in any type of social excercise for the benefit of society, the right goes into convulsions, moaning and whining about socialism.
But before the New Deal, what did we have? The gilded age, which turned T. Roosevelt from a republican to a progressive, the ‘trust buster’? Or of course the roaring twenties, which saw another republican regime turn the business of government over to private interests (we all know where that lead)?
August 14th, 2008 at 10:38 amcreusa1 Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 10:39 amNo
creusa1 Says:
You’re so dumb that you linked to this thread.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:40 amWe all know why this administration want’s to dump SS, they have left IOU’S worth nothing in the account and don’t want to pay them back….The option is like everything else with the reich winger’s, steal all you can, lie to the tax payer’s and then change the law’s to suit what ever new game you have invented….It’s called get out of jail free and wealthy….P.B. & J..
August 14th, 2008 at 10:41 amOkay, let’s get this out of the way right now. As long as the US economy’s RGDP grows about 3% for the next 30 years as it has for the last 75 years then Social Security will always be able to pay 100% of benefits.
That is, there is not and will not be a Social Security “crisis.” Anyone who thinks there is should present reasons and be required to read Social Security: The Phony Crisis by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot, co-directors of cepr.net.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:42 amCruelsa ….. wow found a word which dismantles all our arguments here on social security….. SCHEME …..
August 14th, 2008 at 10:46 amplease send better trolls .
scheme –noun 1. a plan, design, or program of action to be followed; project.
Yes, SS is a public pension scheme. What’s your point?
August 14th, 2008 at 10:46 amok then…
way to go…
August 14th, 2008 at 10:47 amSadly, most young people assume that social security won’t be there for them. They have been lied to for so long that it is starting to be accepted as fact despite the real facts.
I’ll say one thing for republicans, they are good liars.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:48 amAudio commentary of John McCain on Social Security (from this clip) is up at Entertonement.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:51 amYou are WRONG and it’s annoying to read that this site is putting out this mis-information. PLEASE PLEASE correct this across the liberal blogsphere.
While it is true that the original Social Security program had current workers paying for retirees benefits, that changed somewhat in 1986 when Alan Greenspan et al. “fixed” Social Security.
Currently you pay approximately 15 cents (15.2 cents) of every dollar of your Social Security taxable income to Social Security. Of that 15 cents approximately 9.6 cents goes to paying Social Security benefits for current Social Security recipients. The other 5.4 cents goes to what might be called a forced retirement benefit payment.
UNDERSTAND???
It’s amazing to me that people don’t understand what the Republicans and the international neo-feudalist financialists have been able to sell to the stupid American workers. If you are 45 years old or older and have been paying Social Security for the last 20 years, it means that five cents out of every Social Security taxable dollar has been going to what should be your retirement account. Think about it, if you’ve earned 50,000 a year for the last 20 years it means that the Greenspan scam has taken $2800 a year of your money, ostensibly for your retirement — a total of $56,000.
They then of course borrowed it to make the general fund deficit look smaller (a backdoor income tax on the working class is all is. They are now going to fix it by taking that money away(for giving themselves the debt). In return you will continue to pay 15.2% of your Social Security taxable income to Social Security, but you’ll be allowed to start annew with a “private account”.
Please get the word out that the true fix for Social Security is to stop borrowing the money that you’ve been forced to pay into your own forced retirement account and to pay back what they owe.
Please stop spreading the word that the Social Security program today is the same Social Security program that ran from its inception until 1986 when the Reagan/Greenspan “fixed it”. Please get the word out that today’s Social Security program is not the same.
What if they don’t take to make people understand that this is a predatory scam on the working class — not because Social Security is bad but because most people are too stupid to understand what Greenspan did.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:55 amcreusa1 Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 10:56 amGot any old people in your family that aren’t drawing SS? Please be honest because if you say no, we will all know you are lying.
Witch1 got it right. Social Security has evolved into Earth’s largest Ponzi Scheme since Nixon dipped into the surplus to finance VietNam.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:57 amNicollo Macplato Says:
Well, you don’t post any links to prove that what you say is true and the bottom line is that it still serves a safety net for older Americans.
Are there things wrong with it….probably, but getting rid of it seems to be your solution and I disagree.
Can we count on republicans to fix any of the problems you outline if they really exist? No.
What else ya got besides: It’s bad and we have to get rid of it.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:02 amcreusa1 Says:
Do you have a reading comprehension problem. Please post links to verify what you have copy and pasted from god knows where or it’s just bullshit, which it is.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:05 amThe republicans are bringing back the golden age ….
August 14th, 2008 at 11:05 amwhere the robber barons lived as kings and the poor struggled in coal mines and sweat shops with their children under the age of 16 ,providing 40% of the income ,working 16 hour a day 7 days a week without owning a home ,without public schools , and without humane or in dangerous working conditions !
In the 1st world today , the USA is virtually the only country without healthcare for its citizenry , or vacations .Try finding a homeless person in germany !We rank near the bottom in education and life span !
citizen_pain said:
If you think about it, conservative republicanism’s primary goal, above all else, is to dismantle every facet of FDR’s New Deal, a part of which of course is SS.
But the fact is, the New Deal turned this country around and helped make it a superpower, by enabling millions to get back to work, rural electrification, banking regulations, the CCC, the TVA, you name it.
It should be very obvious to anyone that cares to think that the New Deal was a GOOD THING.
So why have republicans been trying to dismantle the programs of the New Deal for 6 to 7 decades now? What is their alternative?
Greed and the pursuit of wealth don’t always lead to the best decisions. For example: workers had to fight and die for the forty hour work week. Once it was won, productivity went up. The fact is, money grubbing capitalists don’t want to pay for education, retirement, health care etc. period, whether or not it turns out to be in their best interests.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
August 14th, 2008 at 11:05 am# 35 cruesa
August 14th, 2008 at 11:08 amIt’s the ghost of Milton Friedman .
creusa1 Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Boy are you one confused monkey! Removing the salary cap on SS taxess would scarcely be a tax cut for the wealthy.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:10 amcreusa farts:
You conveniently left out the rest of the definition. Here, let me help you.
scheme –noun
1. a plan, design, or program of action to be followed; project.
2. an underhand plot; intrigue.
3. a visionary or impractical project.
Bad choice of words.
OOOO snap!!!
Too bad you couldn’t get that kind of in depth background on the crapola you posted yesterday (OT) about fetal brain waves after 40 days post-fertilization.
You’re one of the lowest grade trolls on here.
Semantics, which can’t be your strong suit really, is usually pretty lame, and yet you’ve achieved heightening it’s lameness as an “argument.”
Boo!!!
August 14th, 2008 at 11:13 amFred Says:
creusa1 Says:
Do you have a reading comprehension problem. Please post links to verify what you have copy and pasted from god knows where or it’s just bullshit, which it is.
Reading comprehension, statistical misinterpretation, using debunked citation of sources…all these are in Creusa’s playbook.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:16 amTweedster Says:
I just called it bullshit……I’m from the mid-west and we know it when we see it.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:19 amplato
August 14th, 2008 at 11:21 amYou still there? What do you think? I’m really interested in hearing how the most sucessful program in the history of our country is such a failure.
Fred Says:
Tweedster Says:
I just called it bullshit……I’m from the mid-west and we know it when we see it.
I’m inclined to agree, but at the same time, I’m amazed at how someone could spout off such blatant BS with the conviction some of these trolls have. I guess I’m soft on them by giving the benefit of the doubt by chalking it up to cognitive disabilities…
August 14th, 2008 at 11:23 amThere are X amount of tax dollars. But who will get them: Wall street or Main street?
The Republicans, in the main, would like to see this money go to their corporate friends and the military industrial complex players. (roof down approach)
The Democrats, in the main, would prefer to see this money reinvested in the people and the infrastructure. (foundation up approach) Social Security is part of the foundation approach.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:26 amWorking becomes the new retirement with Sen. McCain
that’s great except for most companies forcing the elderly to retire to replace them with “younger blood”.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:26 amno worries pluege the jobs created under bu$h’s watch are all for unskilled laborers and hamburger flippers , they’ll even hire desperate impoverished seniors !
August 14th, 2008 at 11:31 amFred Says:
I am not at all suggesting getting rid of Social Security or anything nearly as stupid — without Social Security we would be in a impossible depression right now.
What I am suggesting — begging for really — is that we get the liberal blogosphere informed as to what it is, in part, since 1986– which is just a backdoor income tax on the working class.
Let me dummy that down some. Of every Social Security dollar you pay into the social security fund every year, 63% goes to paying current Social Security recipients (let me be clear again FRED, I wholeheartedly support this) — the other 37% is for future Social Security recipients, you and me. Every year the Social Security trust fund generates a surplus (dollars greater than the amount of payout to current Social Security recipients) of nearly $300 billion. Every year, except during the latter Clinton years, Congress borrows that money.
That money is going into the general fund. In other words the workers are paying a back door income tax amounting to $.37 of every dollar they pay into Social Security. It does not appear as part of the deficit.
Can’t somebody else help me here and articulate this at a third grade level so that people can understand what’s going on.
It’s like a 5.8% additional income tax on the working class while we’re giving big corporations and the superrich tax breaks.
The fix is to stop borrowing the money and pay what’s already been borrowed back. A partial fix is to stop charging us the additional 5.8% (15.2 one cents less than 9.6 cents) than what is needed to pay current Social Security recipients.
I need help here — I need somebody with an easy way to dummy this down so people can understand it.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:32 amcreusa1 is a republican so he knows all about schemes and scams and corruption and fraud after all he learned all about them while following his corrupt party. There was Iran/Contra, The S&L scandal, Enron and more recently the Home mortgage crisis….
August 14th, 2008 at 11:35 amNicollo Macplato Says:
yeah, I get ya now. You are right. Social Security would be just fine if the republicans would keep their hands off of it.
That’s why we are sending them home. They crossed an unforgivable line when they tried their little social security crisis gambit a year or so ago. It backfired on them and people have not forgotten.
Even old republicans depend on it and they have lost the support of thier constituants. That’s why they are staying in DC instead of going home and facing the music on oh so many counts.
That’s why mccsame has “by invitation only” townhall meetings. Seriously is that an oxymoron or what.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:41 amlet me try it again — very simple.
1)15.2 cents goes into Social Security trust fund
2) 9.6 cents covers all the current cost of Social Security
3) 5.8 cents is stolen by Washington by saying they’re borrowing it without ever having any intention or capability of pain it back
4) not everybody pays Social Security and since Social Security is only taxed on the first $75,000 (approximately)worth of income, it’s the working class who are really paying this 5.8 cents
5) since it goes to the general fund and is used to build bridges to nowhere and pay corrupt contractors in Iraq, and it is based on income, then this is an income tax
6) the fix is not to eliminate Social Security (the most successful social program in the history of the world) or to just leave it alone
7) the fix is to unfix the Greenspan/Reagan “fix” that is little more than a scam by the international neo-feudalists and their corrupt American and neighbors.
Am I getting closer?
August 14th, 2008 at 11:45 amcorrupt American enablers.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:47 amThe new American Retirement Plan;
Work till you die.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:57 amWell, I’m working my ass off to get rid of them in every corner. Even you have to admit that it would not have happened and would not still be happening if it weren’t for republicans. We have a chance to get rid of them and then the democrats will fall into line if we do that….they will get the message if we send it strongly enough. Republicans, not so much.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:57 amFred – agreed
August 14th, 2008 at 12:00 pmCould 2 stolen elections count as a scheme ?
August 14th, 2008 at 12:01 pmThe first election was lost in the popular vote and was awarded to W by the states rights advocates on the SCOTUS who prevented a recount in Florida , a state where his brother just happens to sit as governer.The second election being won by .2 of 1% of the popular vote on electronic voting machines which have now been proven easily tampered with , and contributed by a large supporter , Diebold,of Bush’s run for the presidency.
1/3 of Americans polled believe 911 was a scheme.Remember the Maine ?
The savings and loan scandal during the reagan years , where for instance the presidents brother Neal sat on the board of a bank in Colorado,which after going belly up giving out loans to businesses which all went bankrupt was bailed out by the American tax payer much as the subprime mortgage crisis today , after the deregulations of the industry were put in place by the republicans .
Billions lost and unaccounted for in Iraq with no one held accountable and the reasons for the war itself , which as Alan Greenspan put it ,was ALL about oil.
The patriot act which was read by only 2 senators before it was voted into law presented within hours of the attack on our shores on 911 , but which was obviously prepared long before as it essentially rewrites every law in the united states and cannot be read as other documeants because inorder to read it you must have on hand all the laws in our land or it cannot be read .ie law 3 287986 part d paragraph 3 change is to of and redact last sentence , ect.
Perhaps the plot to overthrow the US government which was foiled by 1 General Butler who played along with the conspirators and then turned them in ,by the presidents grandfather prescot who incidentally lost a bank because he was doing business with the Nazi’s during the 2nd world war .
Another interesting item no one here has brought up regarding SS, who pay’s , who doe’s not, who collect’s and those that pay in and never collect….
While working in Nevada casinos back in the early 80’s I saw van load’s of illegal’s marched up to the counter with the aid of our bilingual bosse’s who were legal’s giving out phoney SS number’s and hiring on the spot…Entire famalie’s were hired in all phases of casino work…Given a studio apt., rent to be deducted from their pay and started working with in a few hour’s.They were even given sheriff’s card’s if they needed to work in the slot dept…
Some of the people worked and sent their pay home to Mexico, some saved up and went back home with in a year or so, other’s I came to know very well had been there for year’s and would not leave…Many would not even venture to another town in fear of immigration picking them up…
I met some very hard working, wonderful people then and none planned to ever retire here and collect SS, how could they, they didn’t have legal SS number’s…The bosse’s even showed them how to fix their exemption’s so they never had to pay any taxe’s,,They all put down 14 or more dependent’s…None I knew ever filled out tax form’s and I knew many…
So here’s the deal, where the hell doe’s all that money go.? Way beyond the present administration’s raiding of all our coffer’s for war profateer’s…This kind of stuff has been going on for over 28 year’s that I know of…Million’s of dollar’s going in to made up or stolen number’s to be used by polatician’s and no one ever claiming their monthly share upon retirement..
The flip side is the million’s going in and being stolen by idenety theft…The tracking and accounting part of SS like every other program in this administration need’s to be fixed…Having a horse judge type in every office or a chertoff kind of guy running thing’s has brought us to this place of unaccountability…
We the people are being fleesed, lied to and mentaly raped by the neo-con’s and big business…Untill we get honesty and accountability back we might as well throw the tub out with the baby and bath water…..P.B. & J
August 14th, 2008 at 12:39 pmGrandpappy McSame: “believes this system is an ‘absolute disgrace.’”
That is the joke of the day. McCain not only was born around the time in FDR area but he gets a social security check plus an allowance from his sugar mama Cindy. And he is the person to fix the social security crisis? Yeah, right.
August 14th, 2008 at 5:51 pmI wonder if Mr. McCain’s ex-wife, whom he deserted after she was wounded, collects social security, or whether he and his new wife help support her in her elder years.
August 15th, 2008 at 9:04 am