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He gave the keynote speech at the RNC convention. and he was Gov. of California.
get you insults in order.
there have been at least 50 years worth of attempts by Rs to reform.
50 years of democrats stonewalling and preventing any meaningful reform.
50 freaking years!
A couple of comments:
Many, many years ago, I worked for a company that provided training to members of Congress & their senior staff on what was then these "new-fangled personal computers." It was enlightening to the members of Congress & select staff. It was also enlightening to me.
Part of the training program involved a custom software program we put together that worked like this. It modeled Social Security inflows & outflows. It put together pretty graphs & pie charts. It relied on actuarially sound data & forecasts. It showed the impending tidal wave of "Baby Boom" retirees... by sheer numbers. It showed the number of people who will be working to support those retirees, both on the then-actual number of human beings already born (and forecast for their earnings & SS contributions) and the number of human beings not-yet born but expected to be born, etc.
As you might imagine, the graphs showed a surplus of inflows over outflows, and then a deficit of inflows relative to outflow... and that deficit grew & grew & swamped the Federal Government.
Shock! Horror! Disbelief!
Part of the training allowed the members of Congress & their senior staff to alter the normal parameters you might imagine: retirement age, FICA % paid, FICA $ cap, means-test the benefits... even immigration rates.
As you might imagine, the graphs changed... yet they ultimately still show a deficit of inflows relative to outflows...
More Shock! More Horror! More Disbelief!
Of course, the thing that couldn't change was the number of people in each age cohort: they've already been born.
The end result, as you might imagine, was nothing. Members of Congress & staff learned a bit about computers, but rarely has Congress actually, you now, done something about the impending SS problem.
Everyone who is currently drawing SS, and everyone who is eligible to draw SS over the course of the next 67 years, has already been born. We can count them. We could write their names (SS numbers) on a figurative/virtual piece of paper.
Everyone who currently contributes into the SS system to pay for the above retirees has already been born & we can write their names down, too.
Everyone who will begin to contribute into the SS system over the next 18 years has also already been born.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the system is broken: it takes an actuary. Actuarial Science is actually pretty good at forecasting the future. "An actuary is like a CPA but with less personality," the old joke goes.
****************
For all elected representatives, it is ever so much easier to kick the can down the road and not deal with the problem. Vocal advocates for retirees such as AARP mobilize when there is a whiff of a threat to their constituency, and elected representatives, eager to please such an active donor constituency & lobby, does its best imitation of an ostrich.
****************
The same problem exists with public employee union pensions (& medical plans) and many large private employee union pensions (& medical as well).
By "problem" I mean kicking the day of reckoning down the road to the next term or the next set of boards of directors.
For example, in its final 5 years prior to going bankrupt, guess what was the largest supplier to General Motors? Steel companies? Nope. Auto Parts suppliers? Nope. GM's largest supplier was Blue Cross. When a major manufacturer's largest supplier is a medical provider (especially for its retirees), you know you have a problem.
I suggest picking up a copy of "While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis" By Roger Lowenstein. There are even audio books you can download from your local public library & play on your iPod.
Hooray for Beaner and the GOP; we workers get to bailout the GOP's Wall Street buddies to the tune of only a few trillion, and now we get to work until we're 70 to pay for it. Hurray for the GOP. Lets all vote GOP so we can have eternal servitude to the corporate masters.
OF COURSE, Mr. Beaner is going to make damned sure he keeps HIS lifetime pension and cadillac health plan. What a guy!
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Hooray for Beaner and the GOP; we workers get to bailout the GOP's Wall Street buddies to the tune of only a few trillion, and now we get to work until we're 70 to pay for it. Hurray for the GOP. Lets all vote GOP so we can have eternal servitude to the corporate masters.
OF COURSE, Mr. Beaner is going to make damned sure he keeps HIS lifetime pension and cadillac health plan. What a guy!
you know Mike, I always have seen you as reasonable. we may not agree on a lot of things but you are reasonable.
the above simply isn’t. First of all that wall street bailout was fully supported by the democrats as well as the republicans and was entirely bad. (see we can agree)
and Bammer has been fully supportive of those bailouts as well.
Not to mention democrats like Pelosi and Hoyer have both stated that raising the retirement age was not out of reason.
so how about you spread your diatribe around to all the offenders.
Many, many years ago, I worked for a company that provided training to members of Congress & their senior staff on what was then these "new-fangled personal computers." It was enlightening to the members of Congress & select staff. It was also enlightening to me.
Part of the training program involved a custom software program we put together that worked like this. It modeled Social Security inflows & outflows. It put together pretty graphs & pie charts. It relied on actuarially sound data & forecasts. It showed the impending tidal wave of "Baby Boom" retirees... by sheer numbers. It showed the number of people who will be working to support those retirees, both on the then-actual number of human beings already born (and forecast for their earnings & SS contributions) and the number of human beings not-yet born but expected to be born, etc.
As you might imagine, the graphs showed a surplus of inflows over outflows, and then a deficit of inflows relative to outflow... and that deficit grew & grew & swamped the Federal Government.
Shock! Horror! Disbelief!
Part of the training allowed the members of Congress & their senior staff to alter the normal parameters you might imagine: retirement age, FICA % paid, FICA $ cap, means-test the benefits... even immigration rates.
As you might imagine, the graphs changed... yet they ultimately still show a deficit of inflows relative to outflows...
More Shock! More Horror! More Disbelief!
Of course, the thing that couldn't change was the number of people in each age cohort: they've already been born.
The end result, as you might imagine, was nothing. Members of Congress & staff learned a bit about computers, but rarely has Congress actually, you now, done something about the impending SS problem.
Everyone who is currently drawing SS, and everyone who is eligible to draw SS over the course of the next 67 years, has already been born. We can count them. We could write their names (SS numbers) on a figurative/virtual piece of paper.
Everyone who currently contributes into the SS system to pay for the above retirees has already been born & we can write their names down, too.
Everyone who will begin to contribute into the SS system over the next 18 years has also already been born.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the system is broken: it takes an actuary. Actuarial Science is actually pretty good at forecasting the future. "An actuary is like a CPA but with less personality," the old joke goes.
****************
For all elected representatives, it is ever so much easier to kick the can down the road and not deal with the problem. Vocal advocates for retirees such as AARP mobilize when there is a whiff of a threat to their constituency, and elected representatives, eager to please such an active donor constituency & lobby, does its best imitation of an ostrich.
****************
The same problem exists with public employee union pensions (& medical plans) and many large private employee union pensions (& medical as well).
By "problem" I mean kicking the day of reckoning down the road to the next term or the next set of boards of directors.
For example, in its final 5 years prior to going bankrupt, guess what was the largest supplier to General Motors? Steel companies? Nope. Auto Parts suppliers? Nope. GM's largest supplier was Blue Cross. When a major manufacturer's largest supplier is a medical provider (especially for its retirees), you know you have a problem.
I suggest picking up a copy of "While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis" By Roger Lowenstein. There are even audio books you can download from your local public library & play on your iPod.
Hooray for Beaner and the GOP; we workers get to bailout the GOP's Wall Street buddies to the tune of only a few trillion, and now we get to work until we're 70 to pay for it. Hurray for the GOP. Lets all vote GOP so we can have eternal servitude to the corporate masters.
OF COURSE, Mr. Beaner is going to make damned sure he keeps HIS lifetime pension and cadillac health plan. What a guy!
Mike don't forget all the demos are rich too . And have just as amny lobbist as the repubs do . I don't like any of them including Paul or Palin so i don't have a ' dog ' in the race anyway .
you know Mike, I always have seen you as reasonable. we may not agree on a lot of things but you are reasonable.
the above simply isn’t. First of all that wall street bailout was fully supported by the democrats as well as the republicans and was entirely bad. (see we can agree) and Bammer has been fully supportive of those bailouts as well.
Not to mention democrats like Pelosi and Hoyer have both stated that raising the retirement age was not out of reason.
so how about you spread your diatribe around to all the offenders.
Fair 'nuff.
I am a reasonable person, but the GOP was in charge for years when the crap went down that put us in this awful mess.
I do agree that both sides of the aisle supported the fixes; the alternative scared them to death. After all, most of them are in the pocket of the big banks and corporations who donate to their campaign funds and PACs.
ALL of congress is for sale, and I've often referred to the capitol building as the world's biggest bordello, where ALL virtue is for sale.
Still, in this case, it was GOP heavyweight Boehner who mentioned working to age 70, which at least implies upping the age for Medicare to 70, i.e., until then it's more of the YOYO principal (You're On Your Own) on health care. If Pelosi and Hoyer chime in, that's okay too.
Meanwhile, watch how quick many baby boomers retire to get ahead of any change to the retirement age, which BTW, may be the whole purpose of such rhetoric, i.e., get older boomers to retire, free up jobs for the unemployed, thus reduce paying out unemployment, which cuts deficit spending. Would you put that past either party?
__________________
- Please follow our TOS.
- Any Questions about City-Data? See the FAQ list.
- Want some detailed instructions on using the site? See The Guide for plain english explanation.
- Realtors are welcome here but do see our Realtor Advice to avoid infractions.
- Thank you and enjoy City-Data.
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