For the poor and middle class, that is a contradiction in terms. http://www.smudgereport.com/ Bush Jr. wants to be like Hoover when he grows up. I just hope another Democrat like FDR will be able to bail us out of the mess Republicans have got us in. http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/fr32.html Franklin D. Roosevelt Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." http://www.ssa.gov/history/fdrstate.html "This law represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means completed--a structure intended to lessen the force of possible future depressions, to act as a protection to future administrations of the Government against the necessity of going deeply into debt to furnish relief to the needy--a law to flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and of inflation--in other words, a law that will take care of human needs and at the same time provide for the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness." -August 14, 1935
FDR is the democrat who got us into this mess to begin with. Social Security seemed like a good idea at the time, but they diddn't expect the baby boomers.
What mess? Social Security is fully solvent until 2055. The mess that FDR didn't see is that there would be a big pot of money that Congress couldn't keep its mits off of.
2055? Where the hell are you getting your news from? Bush gives it 15 years before it goes into a deficit Greenspan gives it about 24 more years. And this comes right from social security's website: If Social Security is not changed, payroll taxes will have to be increased, the benefits of today's younger workers will have to be cut, or massive transfers from general revenues will be required. Social Security's Chief Actuary states, "If benefits were reduced to meet the shortfall in revenue for the combined program, the reduction would need to be 27 percent starting with the exhaustion of the Trust Fund in 2042 and would rise to 32 percent for 2078. Alternatively, if additional revenue were provided beginning in 2042, revenue equivalent to a payroll tax rate increase of about 3.1 percentage points (from 12.4 percent under current law to about 15.5 percent) would be needed for the year. The additional revenue needed for 2043 would be equivalent to a payroll tax rate increase of about 4.5 percentage points for the year. Thereafter, the amount of additional revenue needed would gradually rise, reaching an amount equivalent to an increase in the payroll tax rate of about 5.9 percentage points for 2078 (or about 50 percent higher than today's rate
My number comes from the radio, supposedly orginiated by the Congessional Budget Office. Considering the cost estimates for Iraq, I think that Bush's number is pretty suspect. Greenspan's number is pretty reliable, but 24 years out does not make it a rush item. Sliding that much cash past the electorate onto Wall Street is pretty important to someone.
Now that's just plain silly. I don't know of anyone of importance in the government or media - of ANY political ideology - who actually believes that. Also, there are varying degrees of solvency. Which are you referring to? When the SS payouts exceed the SS interest revenue? When the SS payouts exceed the annual SS tax revenue? When the SS payouts exceed the total amount of money in the SS coffers? When the SS payouts exceed the budget of the US government?
If I rememeber correctly, what I heard is that SS can continue paying out at the current rate (with no decrease in benifits) until 2055 and a decreased payout thereafter for [memory failure ca.70] years. The political bias (if any) of the congressional budget folks can be judged by the political bias of the members of congress. Congress has been Repub. for many years.
you are correct Mike. It would be fine if Republicans would stop raiding it to fund their wars. When Clinton was President he extended the life of Social Security to another 35 years. When Ronald Reagan was President he tried to dismantle it completely to fund his "Star Wars" missile shield. Paid off $360 billion of the national debt Between 1998-2000, the national debt was reduced by $363 billion — the largest three-year debt pay-down in American history. We are now on track to pay off the entire debt by 2009. Converted the largest budget deficit in American history to the largest surplus Thanks in large part to the 1993 Deficit Reduction Act, the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, and President Clinton’s call to save the surplus for debt reduction, Social Security, and Medicare solvency, America has put its fiscal house in order. The deficit was $290 billion in 1993 and expected to grow to $455 billion by this year. Instead, we have a projected surplus of $237 billion. http://clinton5.nara.gov/WH/Accomplishments/eightyears-01.html http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/05/01/clinton.debt/ http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
