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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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thinks SS is a ponzi scheme
As currently funded, it is a Ponzi shceme, and Medicare is worse. Let's fix it, so that not only we but our children and grandchildren can depnd on it, rather than gripe when someone points out its status as underfunded and/or over-promised.
John
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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John wrote: As currently funded, it is a Ponzi shceme.
Prove it.
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apogee
climber
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"Let's fix it"
Privatize it? Or essentially keep the current system in place, with dramatic changes?
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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If by"privatize it" you mean that you actually own the assets you have contributed and the government can't steal them and divert them to other uses,
yes!
I'm for that!
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apogee
climber
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How about your party's preferred option, TGT...to privatize SS into the stock market...
Yeah, that was a great idea...as if financial demigods weren't already rolling around in enough of our cash....
You guys sure come up with great ideas. Got any more, just for laughs?
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Coincidence that Fattrad posts right after Jstans posting about mental health..?
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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No I do not want to privatize it, because I'm afraid that whatever system takes its place would be worse. It will still be governmentally regulated (out of fear that people would not invest for their later years, and become a ward of the state or an undue burden upon their children), and investments will be limited (because of the same fear) to what the government wants it to be. Sorry, but I don't trust government to regulate rationally. I'd rather have the current system, invested in treasury instruments, than a regulated but "privatized" one.
I want it fixed by changing some combination of retirement age, taxes, benefits and fees so that it balances. We can debate which combination is best, and I suspect our preferences differ, but denying the actuarial insolvency of Medicare and Social Security does a disservice to these programs on which generations of Americans have come to rely, because they will go broke without changes.
Bob, the trustees of the Social Security Administration admit its actuarial insolvency, and Medicare, with its unfunded drug benefit, is even worse. With another year of lower Social Security taxes, the situation will simply get worse. We need to act now, while the cost of fixing it is cheapest, not later, when the fix will be either prohibitively costly, or the benefit cuts devastatingly impoverishing.
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apogee
climber
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Dead man walking, indeed:
Obama ozone decision blindsides enviros - and his own EPA
By ROBIN BRAVENDER | 9.2.11 6:02 PM EDT
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/62586.html
Leaders of environmental and public health groups arrived at the White House Friday morning for what was supposed to be a look-ahead at the fall energy and environment agenda.
What they got instead was a rude awakening.
Administration officials told the stunned enviros that President Barack Obama was pulling the plug on plans to tighten Bush-era ozone standards — standards Obama’s own EPA chief has previously declared “not legally defensible.”
The environmentalists may have been the last to know, but not by much; an administration official told POLITICO that the White House didn’t notify the EPA of the decision until Thursday — and that EPA officials were not involved in the decision-making process.
The EPA was “completely blindsided by this,” said John Walke, clean air director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
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jstan
climber
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Sorry, but I don't trust government to regulate rationally. I'd rather have the current system, invested in treasury instruments, than a regulated but "privatized" one.
Indeed, Social Security does just that. Its funds are invested in Treasuries. And I agree the earlier we pay whatever price is required, the better.
But I have an honesty issue with any Congressional attempt to rectify the plans.
1. Can we please have a bill less than 2000 pages long that can actually be read and with all the illegal absurdities removed.
2. Can we cease hearing that the money has all been spent and there is no fund for Social Security.
3. Can we please have no more efforts literally to destroy the system entirely using the various red herrings floated during past efforts. The first person to rail on FDR must needs be removed from Congress.
4. There needs to be no media releases on the effort except the releases from the GAO and the budget office.
5. Existing law must be strictly enforced preventing tax exempt entities from lobbying Congress
and the electorate on the issue.
In the final analysis, political process in the US may well be too corrupt to accomplish this needed task.
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Let’s get it over with and rename the holiday “Capital Day.” We may still celebrate Labor Day, but our culture has given up on honoring workers as the real creators of wealth and their honest toil — the phrase itself seems antique — as worthy of genuine respect.
Imagine a Republican saying this: “Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
These heretical thoughts would inspire horror among our friends at Fox News or in the Tea Party. They’d likely label them as Marxist, socialist or Big Labor propaganda. Too bad for Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president, who offered those words in his annual message to Congress in 1861. Will President Obama dare say anything like this in his jobs speech this week? http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-last-labor-day/2011/09/04/gIQA11Ob2J_story.html
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apogee
climber
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She does have a purty mouth, donchshe?
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apogee
climber
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Too sketchy, fattrad. I'm more attracted to John's suggestion- changes to the existing system. Yes, having such a large program run by the Feds will always make that $ vulnerable to manipulation, but it seems the lesser of the two evils.
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John Moosie
climber
Beautiful California
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Texas is going broke.
Evil Republicans want to starve retirees..
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apogee
climber
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"Perry is my man, for now, but if someone else crops up with an even better shot at winning the POTUS for the GOP then he (or she) will be my choice. I am flexible."
Consider yourself fortunate- I'm gonna be stuck with the same ol' nutless candidate. Gawd, I wish this political system could change.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Apogee wrote: Consider yourself fortunate- I'm gonna be stuck with the same ol' nutless candidate. Gawd, I wish this political system could change.
Yeah...he sure is nutless...the pulled the trigger on Bin Laden, Somali pirates, passed heathcare reform, repeal don't ask, don't tell, yes nutless.
Vote for Perry or any other of the dumb shits running on the republican side. I get tired of hearing you whine about Obama.
Change it...join fat, leb and the rest of the flat earthers.
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bookworm
Social climber
Falls Church, VA
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former enron advisor and libs' favorite economist doesn't even accept his own theories:
* "Mr. Cantor's critics have been quick to accuse him of hypocrisy, and with good reason. After all, he and his Republican colleagues showed no comparable interest in paying for the Bush administration's huge unfunded initiatives. In particular, they did nothing to offset the cost of the Iraq war, which now stands at $800 billion and counting."--Paul Krugman, New York Times, Sept. 2
* "Should disaster aid, as a matter of sound public finance, be offset by immediate cuts in other spending? No. The time-honored principle, backed by economists right and left, is that temporary bursts of spending--which usually arise when there's a war to fight, but can also arise from other causes, including financial crises and natural disasters--are a good reason to run temporary budget deficits."--Krugman, same column
winston smith is evil
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Obama approval rating is at 44 per-cent, republican led house is at 13 per cent.
Fat...what don't you understand about this?
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Fat wrote: But, many of the "accomplishments" you've listed above for Obama have hurt our economy.
No fat it is your dumb ass republicans that have hurt our economy...13 per cent approval rating.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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It seems ironic that Rick Perry is asking the feds for help in fighting the Texas widfires after posturing about government spending....It's also ironic that after all his California bashing , Californina is loaning fire crews to help fight his fires..And for a final dose of irony are the reports that climate change-global warming are contributing to more wildfires...Tough sh#t Perry ...Time to suck on reality...
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