"The so-called Social Security crisis exists in only one place: the minds of Republicans. The program is on solid ground for decades to come."
-- Sen. Harry Reid, in 2005
"This war is lost."
-- Sen. Harry Reid, on Iraq, in 2007
Oops.
Harry Reid, that bespectacled senator from Nevada, has risen to the pinnacle of power in the U.S. Senate as head of the majority Democrats. And yet, no one in American politics has been more cataclysmically wrong than Reid, about both war and peace.
As we know, the war was not lost, and Iraq has been stabilized, having recently held yet another round of elections.
And now it appears Social Security has begun running out of money: This year, it will begin paying out more in benefits than it takes in through payroll taxes -- about $29 billion more.
That might be OK, if our retirement funds had been sitting in the bank waiting for this day, as they should have. Not so.
"Too bad the federal government already spent that money over the years on other programs, preferring to borrow from Social Security rather than foreign creditors," writes the Associated Press. "In return, the Treasury Department issued a stack of IOUs ..."
Let's say that again, for clarity's sake: The federal government forced you to save for your retirement by deducting money from your paycheck and employer, and then spent the money itself -- in an effort to hide the true cost of government programs and to make members of Congress look more frugal than they are. They used your retirement nest egg to do that.
All the while, if you tried to use your 401(k) funds early, they penalized you severely. Nice touch.
Now, the piper must be paid: Social Security has some $2.5 trillion of those IOUs that it will be cashing in -- meaning that a Congress that is already overspending its budget by $1.5 trillion this year alone must now come up with another $2.5 trillion.
And when those IOUs are all paid back, the government will have to find a way to fund Social Security's growth in the decades to come. Estimates are that the government will owe $60 trillion to $100 trillion or more in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payments that it currently has no idea where to get the money from.
But Social Security is "on solid ground for decades to come," Reid said only five years ago.
Now Reid and other Democrats claim they can insure everyone in America and save money doing it.
Remember that lame contention right along with the others.
I don't know about y'all, but I'm going to take my pick-up truck to Parkersburg, WV where they keep the IOU's in file cabinets when the time to draw mine comes and, just like the guys on "Picker's," I'm going to get the cabinets since the IOU's are worthless.
harry reid is soon gone. the people in nevada are fed up with his nonsense. i addressed a major point in this editorial 2 days ago--in a blog. "if a person put the same money in a bank account"--you could leave it to your kids, or whatever you wanted to. in my case, being single--if i die young, the govt. keeps it all.
It is absolutely amazing to me how some people still buy into the garbage that Reid and the Dems keep putting into their trash cans. I'm not sure who is worse, Bernie Madoff or Congress? They both did the same thing--robbed hard-working Americans of their Retirement! But for Reid and the Dems to act like nothing is wrong, and spend even more on the Obamanation Health Care Plan is truly unforgivable. If Obama, Reid, Pelosi and Company bypass OUR Constitution, and railroad this Health Care Bull through Congress, we won't just be paying out money we do not have, there will be hel_, to pay!
Yes, you are absolutely right Nat. Reid, Pelosi, et al, are perfectly willing to sacrifice their political careers, to pass this monstrosity called HCR, because they think that once it is passed, by whatever means, it will be an historic occasion that will forever ensure their names in the history books. Actually, if they do carry out their threat, and use parliamentary sleight of hand to pass this bill using the "Deem & pass" tactic, all hell will break loose. Make no mistake about it. The constitution is clear on this issue, despite what you may hear. Article 1, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution states, “Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a Law, be presented to the President of the United States.” Further, if it is passed, and signed, and presented to the POTUS, and he signs it, he may actually be committing a criminal act. They may eventually all face criminal charges for knowingly violating the constitution, and trying to circumvent the law of the land. Critics will point out that it has been used before by both Dems and Repubs on many occasions. True, many times, but not in this fashion. Every single time before, there was ultimately a vote by all members on the pending legislation, and it was used either for expediency or on a rule of order but never before to elude a vote on the entire fundamental legislation. Further, it was NEVER used for this type of massive, sweeping legislation that has no bipartisan support whatsoever. In this case only, it would be used to completely avoid a vote and to try and pass on to the POTUS for his signature, a bill that has NOT passed Constitutional muster. Knowingly doing so may constitute a crime. Mr. Hussein said today, that he didn't care how the bill was passed, just so it was passed. Sad commentary from our POTUS. In any event, legal scholars will have their say, and this may well become the most poisonous and divisive legislation in our country's history, before all is said and done. I hope for everyone's sake that she does not put our country through this pending firestorm, but my hopes are fading fast.
Fed, your post [which was outstanding by the way], begs several very serious, extremely important social, and political questions:
How can our Constitution, our holy grail of Democracy, be so intentionally invaded without at least an uprise--at most a revolt, from the vast majority of Americans?...And invaded by the very Representatives that we--who do not want this legislation at all--that we elected, based on their sole promise and oath, with one hand on the Bible and the other hand raised to God, to uphold OUR Constitution of OUR United States of America!
Will this "criminal act," mark the beginning of complicitly eluding the very Fundamental Laws themselves, as sacredly set down in our Constitution by our founding Fathers, so that we will now be forced to operate by Dictatorship and not by Demcracy?
And will History record that this reprehensible act which precipitated our Country's Second Tea Party [Taxation without "sane" Representation] in the past 235 years, end in a "bloodbath," as did our Revolutionary War?
I have heard Democratic pundits actually say that Obama's HCB, if it passes, will be like other hallmark legislation that passed, such as Social Security and Medicare [which Fed so eloquently points out are not comparable], and "the people" will simply forget about it in two or three weeks. I pray to God they are right, but I truly "fear" that they are wrong...very, very wrong!
Didn't we hash and rehash this topic in an earlier thread? Should we go copy our posts from there and put them here, too?
Sure.....if you can't come up with anything new to say, or if you think the sheep didn't get it the first time. Seems that some dolts need constant reminding that their leader is not doing a good job before they will believe it.....just look at the number of people who still say that Obama is doing a good job, despite the evidence to the contrary.
I can't believe our President said that process doesn't matter and he is supposedly a constitutional scholar! This government is beyond belief...
As long as the hard left keep repeating their "perspective" (read lies) then refuting the "perspective" needs to be repeated. The end result of years of government education is a populace with a VERY short attention span. The last perspective repeated seems to be the one carried into the voting booth. (see our current president and congress) Shining the light on the actions of the hard left is the only chance we have of surviving them.
Rarely do I agree with the Opinion column of this paper, but in this case, they are correct. Forcing us to save for retirement (which, rightly, we should be doing) and then spending that money elsewhere is complete bull@#$^. Stating this fact does not accomplish anything but I just had to vent a little bit.
Harry Reid is an Establishment politician and his departure would not be missed by Liberals. Are there any Liberals in the U.S. Senate? Al Franken certainly is not a Liberal when it comes to war.
As far as the U.S. war in Iraq goes: The Augusta Chronicle editorial staff (ACES) claiming that Iraq has been stabilized is ridiculous. I remember when the right wing spin machine fed invading U.S. soldiers the war propaganda line "the quickest way home is through Baghdad." That was 7 years ago this March 20th.
When Saddam's statue was pulled down and the Iraq gov't collapsed, President George W. Bush stood on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln beneath a sign that read "Mission Accomplished" and claimed "In the Battle of Baghdad U.S. forces and their allies have been victorious." That was in early May 2003. Today 97,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq.
Today, after the most recent election "Close Results Portend more Trouble" reads a TIME magazine headline. That hardly spells STABILIZED.
Today, the Refugees International says that in addition to 2 million Iraqis living in exile, "33 percent - or 500,000 people - of the 1.5 million internally displaced people forced from their homes in 2006 and 2007 'live as squatters in slum areas.' ... The Iraqi government is doing little, if anything, to help the displaced, the report said, urging the United States to step in and take up the slack because it 'bears special responsibility' for the looming humanitarian crisis." That does not spell STABILITY in my book.
In addition to the continuing responsibility that the U.S. has for rebuilding and continuing to secure Iraq, the U.S. is also ratcheting up an ever more costly war in Afghanistan.
Take a hard look at war spending. There is no mystery why United States is drowning in debt. America cannot take care of its own people, but it continues to try to dominate the Middle East because that is the region of the world that feeds our addiction to oil.
SOCIAL SECURITY IN AMERICA
- 1918 A system named "Soundex" is patented. It allows for the reduction of all surnames to four
characters. First letter of name and three numbers.
- 1921 All but 6100 individual census records for 1890 are destroyed by a fire in the Commerce Building
in Washington DC
- 1930 Congress approves the "analysis and documentation" of the 1890 through 1920 U.S. Censuses with
"Soundex Coding"
- Mid 1930's President Roosevelt attempts to have the Constitution changed to allow for
15 Justices of the Supreme Court, thereby allowing him to appoint six Justices.
Some of his programs were ruled unconstitutional by the sitting nine justices.
- President Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act of 1935 on August 14, 1935 as part of
his New Deal
- 1937 Payroll Taxes for SS begin ( FICA)
- 1937 53,236 S.S. Lump Sum Death Benefits are paid (prior to 1951 that equaled your contributions)
- 1937 and 1938 2 billion dollars collected for "Trust Fund"
- 1939 U.S. is in a recession blamed on FDR's policies
- 1939 Collection of tax moved from Social Security Administration to the Internal Revenue Service
- 1939 An amendment changed from a "reserve trust" to a "pay as you go" system.
- January 31, 1940, Ida May Fuller received the first monthly SS benefit payment in Vermont. Ida May
Fuller had paid SS taxes for 1937, 1938 and 1939 totaling $24.75. He first monthly benefit was
$22.54. With the February benefit check she had surpassed her entire contributions. She lived to
be 100 years old and collected $22,888.92.
- 1960's Disability Benefits for Veterans Administration is moved to the Social Security Administration
- 1965 President Lyndon Johnson signs Medicare Act. Social Security Benefits began to draw down
"Trust Fund"
- 1970's to present Social Security has been on the brink of insolvency
- 1972 SSI or Supplemental Security Income in added to Social Security Benefits to include immigrants,
Non-citizens and other in the United States who have never paid into the SS system.
- 1972 Cost of Living Allowance {COLA } is added to benefit payments
- 1983 President Reagan signs a bill to "tax SS benefits"
- 2004 Benefits paid exceed $500 billion
- 2009 SS is the largest "government program" in the world in dollars spent
- 2009 SS is the largest single US expenditure @ 20.8% (defense @ 20.5%; Medicare @ 20.1%)
- 2009 SS comprises 37% of "government spending"
- 2009 SS spending is equal to 7% of G.D.P
- 2009 85 million death are recorded at Social Security Death Index
Questions:
- Is socialism pending in America or have we been there a long time?
- Why is the Social Security Death Record missing for only one president, John F. Kennedy?
- Why are there SS Death Records for individuals who died prior to 1937?
- Ruth M. Riggs was issued an SS number in Illinois. She was born and died on October 2, 1899 in Las
Vegas, NV. She was the first to have a number. Why a number 38 years after death.
- Death records for 1900 were 88. Every year since 1899 have entries?
- At one time SS number's included "code" that contained date of birth, state of birth, mother's date of
birth, mother's state of birth. This was available to businesses and provided a means of verifying
an individual's records. Does this still exist? The SS office will neither confirm or deny?
The "good Lord willing", I will have received SS benefits exceeding my contributions after 2011. Then I will begin drawing my "employers" portion. Black males as a portion of the SS System draw less of their "paid in SS taxes" than any other segment of our society. Premature, early death is the cause.
deekster, The $ your employer paid in to SS was part of your salary. That was YOUR money. Do you think he would have paid that money in if you had not been working for him?
They've mismanaged and basically stole from the people with the SS program; and now we're supposed to let them oversee our health care too? Don't think so. Hey AC, where's the coverage on this http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/senate-dems-block-pro... ??? The Dems blocked a constitutional amendment that would exempt Georgians from being forced to participate in a National Healthcare program. They needed 38 votes to move it to the House. This is how the vote breaks down: 34 for; 19 against; 3 excusing themselves from voting. Here are your NO votes: Adelman (42nd); Brown (26th); Butler (55th); Fort (39th); Golden (8th); Harbison (15th); Henson (41st); Jackson (2nd); James (35th); Jones (10th); Orrock (36th); Powell (23rd); Ramsey Sr. (43rd); Seay (34th); Sims (12th); Stoner (6th); Thompson (33rd); Thompson (5th). The 3 excused from voting: Harp (29th); Hooks (14th); and Tate (38th).
Oh, My God! It's Deja' Vu all over again. AAaaaiiiiiieeeeeeee!!!!
Over half of us know it is time. "That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security." The guys that wrote and signed this document were pretty smart. None of them would have stood for being told by the government that they had to buy healthcare insurance and none of them would have tolerated being taxed in order to pay for someone else's healthcare. They would have refused to pay any taxes and stood up in an armed revolution to preserve their freedom from government tyranny. The TEA Party is missing it's calling by waiting until April 15th to rally. They should be in the streets this weekend, mad as hell and ready to fight.
We are so proud of what Our wonderful president is doing to make sure everyone has health insurance. This is going through despite the efforts of the republicans, Rush and Fox news. Carl Rove - eat your heart out. We won, you lost. Go sit down like Cheney and Bush. Look like everyone became interested in Gov't when President Obama won. Look like we'll have that interest for the next 7 years. Carl Rove writes a new book every week and some nut buys it. HELLO! HELLO!
MUST LISTEN!!!!!
There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HplZ_taHXLM&feature=fvst
Jack, we are trying to reach you....If you would just quit screaming, "Hello," into the receiver you could hear us!
Bernie Madoff and others are in prison for running ponzi scheems and crooked accounting that bankrupted their companies and devastated those who invested. Social Security and Medicare are ponzi scheems run by the government and their accounting methods are just as crooked as those of Enron. So how can anyone think the US is not headed for disaster if we don't get our finacial house in order soon. We the "investors" in SS and medicare will be left broke just like the others. China will be here to pick up the pieces.
OK, I haven't looked at his website yet, but how much do you want to bet me that he is either looking to sell books or soliciting donations? BRB.
Southernguy. It is almost as childish as "mega dittos", but not quite.
Posted previously in another thread, but relevant here as well:
History will look back at the theft of trillions of dollars, that should have gone into solid financial investments to fund future Social Security claims, as the most outrageous act of malfeasance ever perpetuated on the American people. How can it be anything other? The full name, which they started leaving off years ago, is the Social Security Trust Fund. Millions of Americans had their money withheld from their paychecks their entire lives, and sent to the Federal Government, to be used for that one single purpose. Instead, legislators on both sides of the aisle, took that money and used it for purposes that were never intended, in order for them to look better financially. They stole the money to avoid rasing taxes for funding, which is always unfavorable with voters. Now, the time bomb that they have created has started to wind down to detonation, and everyone is now starting to blame seniors? Horsefeathers! Blame congress! We, as a nation, have a duty to honor the "New Deal", that created the program some 60+ years ago. Reform? By all means. Have at it. But grandfather all participants in that have paid into the system according to how many years they paid. Then, take all future funds and automatically invest them in a government backed equivalent of an IRA plan, specifically for them, and beyond the reach of the Govt. Only then will we have some light at the end of this tunnel, and until then the debt must be paid, before the other entitlement programs, such as Welfare, Medicaid, etc. Our seniors paid their hard earned money into the program in good faith, and now we need to honor that debt, imho. Peace.
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