The News in a Note

[Jimmy Higgins]

After not doing anything to address the solvency issue of Social Security and Medicare for decades, problem apparently still a problem..

 

[Janice Rael]

It's anti-Capitalist, so why save it? The Poors just leech off of the successful and deserving wealthy, anyway.

Wait, is there still a rule against hyperbole? I'm on a cellphone.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Trump tells press at courtroom that it was a shame what happened to Gov. Noem. He said could "kill a dog, I could kill one hundred dogs on Fifth Avenue" and his supporters would still love him. The reporters mournfully sighed in agreement. "I guess Noem just isn't as likeable as me." Meanwhile, Representative Greene who was with Trump at the Courthouse indicated the Covid vaccine was mind controlling the Judge and jury in this case.

 

[Elixir]

After not doing anything to address the solvency issue of Social Security and Medicare for decades,

... my checks still clear.

problem apparently still a problem..

...and the "not a problem" is still not a problem.
The "problem" is, having given money to the government to save for my retirement, I'm getting some of it back.
Republicans in government think they should have it, for no good reason except that they're greedy.
Anywhere there is government money other than for defense contractors, Republicans think it should belong to them and their donors.
THAT is "the problem".

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

After not doing anything to address the solvency issue of Social Security and Medicare for decades,

... my checks still clear.

problem apparently still a problem..

...and the "not a problem" is still not a problem.
The "problem" is, having given money to the government to save for my retirement, I'm getting some of it back, and Republicans in government think they should have it. Anywhere there is government money other than military, Republicans think it should belong to them and their donors. THAT is "the problem".

Yeah, it isn't insolvent yet. The upcoming insolvency is the problem. Personally, I'm not that happy about investing in a system that won't provide back to me. After all, that was the deal. The GOP and W wanted to create private accounts that'd have cost a fortune and then require earning a few percent to break even. That fell on its head once people learned that trillions would need to be borrowed to start that program.

Then Obama became President and the economy fell through the floor right before he took office. The program needs more money. The money exists, the GOP just don't give a flip about it, and generally the only people who care enough about Social Security to vote on it are old folks. So, nothing resolved, even 20 years after W did his nationwide tour to sell the private accounts.

 

[Elixir]

After not doing anything to address the solvency issue of Social Security and Medicare for decades,

... my checks still clear.

problem apparently still a problem..

...and the "not a problem" is still not a problem.
The "problem" is, having given money to the government to save for my retirement, I'm getting some of it back, and Republicans in government think they should have it. Anywhere there is government money other than military, Republicans think it should belong to them and their donors. THAT is "the problem".

Yeah, it isn't insolvent yet. The upcoming insolvency is the problem.

The insolvency "problem" was supposed to reach crisis levels as soon as Jimmy Carter took office if not before. It should be a pretty mature crisis by now, more than a half century later. Republicans have been trying to raid it the whole time.

Personally, I'm not that happy about investing in a system that won't provide back to me. After all, that was the deal.

Are you 65? That was the deal.
That you think you won't get any/all/more than you paid back, is just a sign that the Republican scaremongering is working.
Bush "borrowed" $1.37 trillion (or half that amount, according to detractors of that representation) of Social Security surplus revenue to pay for his tax cuts for the rich and his war in Iraq and never paid it back.
Maybe paying that back would put your mind more at ease?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

In a campaign rally at an airport in West Virginia, Donald Trump promised that coal would be making a major comeback as he would ban the use of diesel train engines.

 

[Janice Rael]

... my checks still clear.

problem apparently still a problem..

...and the "not a problem" is still not a problem.
The "problem" is, having given money to the government to save for my retirement, I'm getting some of it back.
Republicans in government think they should have it, for no good reason except that they're greedy.
Anywhere there is government money other than for defense contractors, Republicans think it should belong to them and their donors.
THAT is "the problem".

 

[Janice Rael]

lol which one of you said that Social Security can't become insolvent because you still get checks?

Yeah!! Dear BANK, I can't be out of money, I still have some checks left!!

And then we all live forever and collect Social Security for endless decades of our endless, immortal lives!!

Oh my gosh! Social Security can't have problems because it's enough for ME, personally, at the present time?? And in MY foreseeable future? And or Forever and Ever Amen? I am so great!! Lol why would anyone say this

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

lol which one of you said that Social Security can't become insolvent because you still get checks?

Yeah!! Dear BANK, I can't be out of money, I still have some checks left!!

If I could make money appear out of thin air, as the US government can, how would that be incorrect? Where do you think the billions for Ukraine came from, Fort Knox?

 

[ZiprHead]

There is an easy fix for Social Security and Medicare. Make the FICA withholding a flat tax instead of the regressive one it is today.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

There is an easy fix for Social Security and Medicare. Make the FICA withholding a flat tax instead of the regressive one it is today.

It's not as much of a fix as you think because the people that would be paying more in would also be getting more out come retirement.

 

[ZiprHead]

There is an easy fix for Social Security and Medicare. Make the FICA withholding a flat tax instead of the regressive one it is today.

It's not as much of a fix as you think because the people that would be paying more in would also be getting more out come retirement.

No, it doesn't have to work that way at all.

 

[Elixir]

There is an easy fix for Social Security and Medicare. Make the FICA withholding a flat tax instead of the regressive one it is today.

It's not as much of a fix as you think because the people that would be paying more in would also be getting more out come retirement.

No, it doesn't have to work that way at all.

The faux egalitarianism of Murkin conservatism dictates that the rich, who paid so much more into the system, must also withdraw proportionally more out of the system. Means tests are dreaded SOCIALISM!! The only way to avoid it is to let most of the money that rich people make, be immune from FICA.

Failure of the imagination is a powerful asset for oligarchs.