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Social security was going broke, but in 1983 Ronald Reagan and house speaker Tip O'neill worked out a deal to shore it up. Something similar needs to be done again, or the system will go go broke.
At the end of the 1980s, 45% of Americans thought SS was going broke and it would not be there for them when they retired. It always hovers around that number. Its just part of corporate propaganda.
Getting Big Money out of Politics? The problem is that DC is so big that Big Money can talk to the people we can't reach. While we get ignored by the secretaries of the politicians for both parties, the big money lobbyists are having private cocktail parties with our "representatives". That means that they can lobby and buy politicians and then get profit off of sweet deals with the government then donate that money (possibly made off the backs of taxpayers) to buy their way back into office or lobby their way to continuing their own funding, crony capitalist deals, etc.
If you give DC the power to "regulate Big Money", then they will use the laws to hammer the little guys by limiting them while rigging in such loopholes that it will favor the big guys EVEN MORE.
BTW, because of the corruption between big money/lobbyists and DC, I actually am against for-profit prisons. We really should have a separation between public sector and private sector. Death to all social impact bonds!!!!
Social Security and Medicare are going broke. They already spent the money on other stuff and now are funding it partly with IOUs and partly with taxpayer money. In the business world, it would be called a Ponzi scheme. In the government world, sadly, it's just called politics as usual.
As for healthcare as a right, as someone on Medicaid myself, I admit it's better than paying those highway robbery prices for pills that I need when my disability hinders (or so it seems) my ability to get a good paying job. However, I also know that Medicaid tends to goof up each year while getting reauthorization because nobody talks to each other and this year they goofed up and I ended up without meds for a few days (luckily I had some backup ones). Also, I'm not naive enough to think that medical funding and care won't be used as a hostage in government shutdown fights nor that politicians, if times get tough, might cut care or even bring in "death panels" to cut off the "unworthy" to "help the rest of society".
I understand some people think they're being compassionate and kind by advocating for some form of single-payer health care provided by the Fed Gov (Ã la Medicaid), but the cost for that is an additional $3.2 trillion/year (Urban Institute). How does that get funded? Fed Gov currently spends $4.1 trillion/year, total. How does a bump up to $7.3 trillion/year get funded?
To see how other countries fund their national health care systems, social security, etc., look at the national tax rates typical workers pay in the chart on page 9:
Unless your in the upper echelon of society I have no idea why you would be concerned with higher taxes.
To fund the types of social programs some seem to want the Fed Gov to provide, everyone would have to be hit with higher taxes, not just the "upper echelon of society."
But only the upper echelons of society would clearly pay more into the system than they use. A working stiff earning $40 000 a year shouldnt worry about somewhat higher taxes when they no longer have to be ripped off for essential services like health, education and child care.
And ask yourself if you think American workers would be willing to pay that much in taxes.
Americans already pay over 40% of a typical wage anyway when taken into account employer costs of employment. But Americans also have to pay out of pocket for a lot of health care, education, child care and basic safety nets. And hardly any labor rights.
I see that you now claim $3.2 trillion is in ADDITION to what we pay now. LOL, you are beyond help.
The type of redistributive social programs you want the Fed Gov to provided have only been successful under either flat or regressive tax systems. Why? Much broader tax base, therefore much more revenue collected. You can't fund them by soaking the rich. It won't generate enough tax revenue.
We don't have the prerequisite tax system here in the US for what you want. This is what ours looks like:
That's why the US was charted by the researchers as the most progressive tax system in the WaPo article's research analysis. Not coincidentally, the US provides the least in redistributive social program benefits. That's a correlation that holds true when the countries are plotted, as clearly explained in the WaPo research article and chart.
If someone pays $4000 more in taxes and suddenly no longer have to pay $8000 a year in private health care costs, thats a big win. The upper echelons of society will pay a lot more than $4000 in extra taxes per year, thats why they are so against it. They would just pay out of pocket for the health care they need anyway, only the peasants need insurance.
So, tell us, Mike... How does that $3.2 trillion/year get collected by the Fed Gov to fund national health care? Impose new taxes on employers and workers? They won't go for that. And you'll be betraying the "working stiffs" you claim to champion.
Then you are clueless as even anti-single payer think tanks will claim the total costs to cover everyone are $3.2 trillion per year, a saving of $300 billion from the current costs.
Conservatives want to defend and expand a broken system that is more expensive and less efficient than single payer. Eventually they will lose this battle and be forced to live it or live with being a minority party.
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