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I am guessing this topic will get moved but since SS is an important part of retired peoples' income, I thought it would be appropriate to post it here.
The politicians are all chomping at the bit to reduce social security payments. I for one am opposed as I believe many retired people depend on their check to survive. What do we need to do to prevent this from happening?
Look for means testing to be a really hot topic of political discussion after this next presidential election. I have no idea where the 'cut-off' of assets will be before the SS checks start getting decreased but I think this will be one of the first cost cutting steps for SS. Probably also tightening up SSDI
SS is going to be the hot button for the next President.
IMHO the most obvious solution is to tell Congress to pay back all that money they "borrowed" when the fund had monthly surpluses.
But that will never come to pass.
That is not going to solve the problem. Where is the "borrowed" money going to come from? Either from issuing more debt (which will then need to be paid back) or from raising taxes.
Eliminating the SS wage cap will nearly solve the problem, a bit more tweaking (slight increase in payroll tax rate, slight increase in full retirement age, slight decrease in future benefits, or some combination thereof) will get us the rest of the way there. The solution is no secret, it's just that no one wants to propose it, for fear of voter backlash.
The government cut Medicare coverage; no one cared. Why wouldn't people expect cuts or elimination of Social Security payments?
Because lots of people would in fact care if Social Security benefit payments were reduced. We would notice immediately if our monthly check were not the same, but in the case of Medicare lots of people would never notice cuts to stuff they are not utilizing at the present time. In other words the Medicare cuts are potential, theoretical cuts which may or may not affect people in the future. A simple example: if Medicare were to cut paying for wheelchairs, I may never know about it unless I happen to need a wheelchair before I die.
When considering "what if" scenarios in the political arena, it is important to distinguish hot air expended to court a particular constituency from things which actually have a chance of passing. Cuts to Social Security payments have zero chance of passing Congress. There would be a national hue and cry to surpass all previous national upsets, as not only the people currently receiving SS would care about it, the adult children and grandchildren of those recipients would care about it too, as they would not like the idea of having to step in to make up the short-fall so that mom and dad or grandma and grandpa wouldn't have to dumpster dive for food.
Because lots of people would in fact care if Social Security benefit payments were reduced. We would notice immediately if our monthly check were not the same, but in the case of Medicare lots of people would never notice cuts to stuff they are not utilizing at the present time. In other words the Medicare cuts are potential, theoretical cuts which may or may not affect people in the future. A simple example: if Medicare were to cut paying for wheelchairs, I may never know about it unless I happen to need a wheelchair before I die.
good point but you would actually only notice it on your 2nd wheelchair. If it was the 1st one, you wouldn't be aware there was a difference.
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