Far from being broke, the Social Security program is one of the richest entities

[Freeper]

ProfessorPlum Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Sat Oct-23-10 04:25 PM
Original message
Far from being broke, the Social Security program is one of the richest entities in the country
   
I just don't understand how the Democrats are losing the spin on this one.

In the 1980s, the cries about the impending retirement of the baby boomers became loud and hard to ignore. SS really was going to face a shortfall, unless it changed its formula.

Enter Greenspan, Reagan, and Tip O'Neill. They figured out and passed an adjustment to SS in the early 80s that would increase the payments that everyone would enter in to the system, in order to get ready for the baby boom. It pleased the Democrats, because it strengthened Social Security. It pleased the GOP, because it was a regressive tax that took money disproportionately from working class people. And it SOLVED the SS/baby boom problem, which is about the only problem with SS that its designers didn't (really couldn't) forsee.

The GOP continued to fall on the fainting couch about SS being or going broke after that, but it just wasn't true at all.

SS, which had been set up as a system that paid what it took in, began to take in more than it paid out. And what did it do with all of that extra money? It began to put it in one of the safest, most conservative investments, US Treasury bonds. It has since amassed one of the biggest fortunes in T bonds ever - something like $2.5 trillion.

Think about that. When Goopers talk about SS being broke, they are talking about an entity that is sitting on top of a $2.5 trillion war chest full of bonds. If you had $2.5 trillion in bonds and someone told you that you were broke, what would be your response?

The catfood commission is somehow going to try to talk us out of demanding that those bonds be honored the way any other bond would be honored. WTH? How can we be losing this argument? Will Americans really stand for this theft? Amazing.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9374803

This from the people who say there is no deficit. Yet the smaller deficit under Bush was going to destroy the world. Then again these people buy the lie from Pelosi that food stamps and unemployment checks create jobs.
 

A HERETIC I AM Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Sat Oct-23-10 04:27 PM
Response to Original message
2. Well said. Now cue the folks that will tell you Treasury bonds aren't worth the paper they're...
   
Edited on Sat Oct-23-10 04:28 PM by A HERETIC I AM
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Hell the dollar will be used as toilet paper before too long because it will be cheaper than buying it.

cutlassmama Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Sat Oct-23-10 07:48 PM
Response to Original message
25. Simple solution, raise the cap

That is the answer you guys always have, tax the rich even more.

[NHSparky]

Brain hurts.  Too much stoopid in posts.

[Evil_Conservative]

Yes, SS is so rich, I will see my money when I retire.

/end sarcasm

[I_B_Perky]

Screw SS. They changed it in the mid 80's cause they were going broke and now they are going to change it again. I guarantee it will be means tested by the time I get there and since I save my money and invest I won't be eligible. Of course Billy Joe Bob up the street that spends all his money on big screen TV's and steaks will get his.

I ain't planning on it being there because I do not want to depend on a bunch of politicians telling me what I will get. All I want is all the money I put into it at say 5 percent interest. What I will get is nada.

Pisses me off.

[diesel driver]

Yes, SS is so rich, I will see my money when I retire.

/end sarcasm

My oldest son and I have a running inside joke.  He calls me during his lunch break, and when he says he needs to get back to work, I tell him to get going, so he can pay for my Social Security.

I'm 51, and I already know that I won't be getting any SS in 15 years.  He does, too.  I do feel sorry for my children.

[I_B_Perky]

My oldest son and I have a running inside joke.  He calls me during his lunch break, and when he says he needs to get back to work, I tell him to get going, so he can pay for my Social Security.

I'm 51, and I already know that I won't be getting any SS in 15 years.  He does, too.  I do feel sorry for my children.

True story DD. Guy up at work imported a 35 yr old wife 6 yrs ago from the Phillipines and had a kid at age 60. At 65 he went to talk to SS and they told him he was gonna get like 10-12 grand a year until the kid turned 18 (on top of his SS retirement!)  Up until that time he was gonna work until he was 72. So as soon as found out about that he figured out that he was losing money by not retiring. Ain't seen him since.

Pisses me off.

[JohnnyReb]

True story DD. Guy up at work imported a 35 yr old wife 6 yrs ago from the Phillipines and had a kid at age 60. At 65 he went to talk to SS and they told him he was gonna get like 10-12 grand a year until the kid turned 18 (on top of his SS retirement!)  Up until that time he was gonna work until he was 72. So as soon as found out about that he figured out that he was losing money by not retiring. Ain't seen him since.

Pisses me off.

Got a friend that has a young daughter. He's getting money from SS for her. He's putting every dime of her check in the bank for her college (her bank account). Her money comes in a seperate check every month and  you have to account for how it's spent "on her". Well they called him in for an accounting and raked him over the coals for not spending "her" money on "her". They said he wasn't supposed to save it, he was suposed to spend it on "her'.

ETA:  Yes there's plenty of money in SS...it's in the Clinton/Gore lock box....stored in Ft. Knox.....ain't it?... right?... right?

[diesel driver]

Got a friend that has a young daughter. He's getting money from SS for her. He's putting every dime of her check in the bank for her college (her bank account). Her money comes in a seperate check every month and  you have to account for how it's spent "on her". Well they called him in for an accounting and raked him over the coals for not spending "her" money on "her". They said he wasn't supposed to save it, he was suposed to spend it on "her'.

ETA:  Yes there's plenty of money in SS...it's in the Clinton/Gore lock box....stored in Ft. Knox.....ain't it?... right?... right?

I thought that was where Zero kept his "stash".  Or maybe the lock box IS Zero's stash.   

I can't keep it straight any more.

[JohnnyReb]

I thought that was where Zero kept his "stash".  Or maybe the lock box IS Zero's stash.   

I can't keep it straight any more.

Niether can the Zero.

[catsmtrods]

Ya know it pisses me off. I been putting into it  for over 35 years! These days I look at my ck and I am giving almost $100 a week and I have 9 years to go!! I can hardly put away $50 a week on my own. Now if I had all that money I put in over the years I would be set! I better get something back or the bastards will be taking care of me one way or the other.

[Evil_Conservative]

Ya know it pisses me off. I been putting into it  for over 35 years! These days I look at my ck and I am giving almost $100 a week and I have 9 years to go!! I can hardly put away $50 a week on my own. Now if I had all that money I put in over the years I would be set! I better get something back or the bastards will be taking care of me one way or the other.

Agree, agree, agree!!

My husband & I have decades to go before retiring.  We are not even 30 yet.  I'd rather not have SS taken out, that way we could put that money in our own savings and know it will be there.  Our savings account is weak.  We would like to contribute more, but it's just not feasible most weeks.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Yah, there's plenty of money in my paycheck, too, until the mortage, payroll deductions, wife, etc. all take their cut.  Unlike Social Security, though, I come out with a slightly positive balance after all the due-outs get deducted.

It doesn't matter how big the pile of dirt looks ocmpared to other piles of dirt, what matters is whether it'll fill the hole you're pushing it into, and in the case of SS, there ain't enough dirt for the hole.

Dumbshits. 

[JohnnyReb]

Savings info from 40 years ago when I worked for DuPont....
....and SS witheld less than 1/2 as much as they do now.

DuPont put out a paper on the importance of saving for your future. They promised you a retirement after 25 years but they still thought you needed to save for old age.

If you started to work at 21 and put the same amount of money in the bank every week at 2 1/2% interest as your share of SS until you were 65.....now follow this....At 65 SS would pay you $280 per month....interest on your savings account would pay you $450 a month without touching the principle.

[true_blood]

Stupid. THAT.IS.ALL.

[diesel driver]

I only have 2 words for how well private retirement vs. Social Security works.

Galveston, TX. 

They opted out back in the 80's under Reagan, before the Dims in Congress closed the loophole.  They put back the same amount that would go to SS, and today, retirees are drawing about 3 times what they would get with SS, PLUS, when they die, the balance gets passed on to the family.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

SS, which had been set up as a system that paid what it took in, began to take in more than it paid out. And what did it do with all of that extra money? It began to put it in one of the safest, most conservative investments, US Treasury bonds. It has since amassed one of the biggest fortunes in T bonds ever - something like $2.5 trillion.

Am I reading this correctly that this guy thinks: funded by debt = rich?

Were they not paying attention during the derivatives meltdown?

Not only is SS funded by debt but the government used SS collateralize the debt...and is trading instruments from its front pockets to its back pockets in a shell game that would land a private CEO in jail.

[JohnnyReb]

Am I reading this correctly that this guy thinks: funded by debt = rich?

Were they not paying attention during the derivatives meltdown?

Not only is SS funded by debt but the government used SS collateralize the debt...and is trading instruments from its front pockets to its back pockets in a shell game that would land a private CEO in jail.

Bernie Madoff(sp) could head up SS as his prison job. His system and SS have a lot in common.

[I_B_Perky]

I only have 2 words for how well private retirement vs. Social Security works.

Galveston, TX. 

They opted out back in the 80's under Reagan, before the Dims in Congress closed the loophole.  They put back the same amount that would go to SS, and today, retirees are drawing about 3 times what they would get with SS, PLUS, when they die, the balance gets passed on to the family.

Exactly DD. You could invest in just straight government bonds and still come out way ahead... and it would be yours. I thought I read somewhere that some of those folks in Galveston TX had a couple million by the time they retired. Could just take the interest and would still come out way ahead of what they would get from SS.

[jukin]

If an IOU actually equaled an asset the SS would be RIIIIICCCCHHHH!!!!

Me, I want a chunk of some of that federally confiscated land in the west of the USA for my money but I think I have a subordinate position to the Chicoms.

[Ballygrl]

I remember hearing years ago that 1 of the many problems with Roe v Wade was the amount of citizens it took out of the pool of people paying Social Security for future retirees, it makes sense, almost 50 million citizens were removed.

[JohnnyReb]

OH LOOK !!!!! The mice have gotten in the lock box and chewed up all the IOU's....Sorry folks...you're just shit out of luck.

[NHSparky]

Memo to lurking DUmmies--give me back the money I and my employers over the years have paid into SS on my behalf, I'll invest it until retirement age, and never place a claim for a single dime of "government" (read: MY) money again.  Because were I able to privately invest that money and any other money confiscated from me against my will in a manner of my choosing, I could guaran-****ing-TEE that I'd be making more than the pittance I'd be "entitled" to based on the government determining my "need" when I grow old.