Social Security …my take on it…

Posted on by Forge77
Bush Admin. Urges Social Security Fix

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration said in a new report
Monday that Social Security is facing a $13.6 trillion shortfall in
coming years and that delaying reforms is not fair to younger workers.

A report issued by the Treasury Department said that some
combination of benefit cuts and tax increases will need to be
considered to permanently fix the funding shortfall. But White House
officials stressed that President Bush remains opposed to raising taxes.

ahhh social security, How do i know thee. since the 2nd term of George W., He’s had his eye on this issue, but was not able to mess with the system *yet* for the people who stand to make money off it. And right off in starting with this article they are already messing with average joe. “the Shortfall in the coming years.” ? coming years? well fuck whens that? did someone contact the physic network on this one? Maybe next leap year on a full moon with bill clinton playing the sax to the great pumpkin. Magic 8-ball, *Reply hazy, ask again later* (which means yes to certain people.) anyways…

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he hoped the new report would
help find common ground on the politically divisive issue, but a key
Democrat charged that the administration will still try to fix Social
Security by imposing sharp benefit reductions.

“The administration’s new report is a reminder of President Bush’s
determination to not only privatize Social Security but to make deep
cuts in the benefits that American workers have earned,” said Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “Nobody should be fooled into
believing that the only way to save Social Security is to destroy it
with privatization or deep benefit cuts.”

well at least one person so far is making some sense in this. as far as privatization goes it will not work. but a simple acid test for privatized SS, compare it to the now privatized Medicare drug plan, frightened yet ? if not you should be. The So called savings of the privatized medicare plans never came to fruit , maybe someone saved but likely they took off to canada or misreported there savings. absolutly EVERYONE i know that got sucked into this plan is PAYING MORE!.

Bush had hoped to make Social Security reform the top domestic
priority of his second term. He put forward a Social Security plan in
2005 that focused on creation of private accounts for younger workers,
but that proposal never came up for a vote in Congress with Democrats
heavily opposed and few Republicans embracing the idea.

The Treasury report put the cost of the gap between what Social
Security is expected to need to pay out in benefits and what it will
raise in payroll taxes at $13.6 trillion “over the indefinite future.”

Its probably a good thing that the boy general got caught up in playing warwagon. Since the fact this will create “private accounts” this will raise the fact of abuse. people will put less in, also the accounts will be more liable to loose money because it is rumored of how you will have the money in the account invested, so if the market tanks, depression, recession etc. You money is gone anyways, so much for saving huh? on wording here. reading this one line, “over the indefinite future.” theres no defined timeline. how the hell did this figure this one out. divide by 0?

It said delaying necessary changes reduces the number of people
available to share in the burden of those changes and is unfair to
younger workers. “Not taking action is thus unfair to future
generations. This is a significant cost of delay,” the report said.

In another key finding, the report said: “Social Security can be
made permanently solvent only by reducing the present value of
scheduled benefits and/or increasing the present value of scheduled tax
increases.”

The paper went on to say: “Other changes to the program might be
desirable, but only these changes can restore solvency permanently.”

huh? and the first 60 years of this and people are only having a problem now?!

While the language of the Treasury report seemed to indicate that
the administration would consider raising taxes along with reducing
benefits as a way to deal with the funding shortfall, the White House
was quick to reject that possibility.

“The president is not advocating for tax increases or benefit cuts,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.

“Everyone understands that the choices available in the current
structure of Social Security, that absent reform, tax increases and
benefit cuts are inevitable,” Fratto said. “That’s why the president
believes it makes more sense to reform the program sooner than later.”

ok this makes me laugh. everyone understands there options, so lets just complicate the fuck out of it like tax code so no one knows what the hell there doing?

Paulson, Bush’s point person on Social Security reform, said he has
had a number of discussions with members of Congress from both parties
over the issue of fixing the problems in Social Security with the
looming retirement of 78 million baby boomers.

“While differences over personal accounts and taxes dominate the
public debate over this issue, in my conversations I found that there
are many other things on which people agree,” Paulson said in a
statement accompanying the issues report.

“By focusing on areas of agreement, I hope these issue briefs will
narrow the divide and spur further discussion of reforms,” Paulson said.

the retirement of 78 million baby boomers. ok, they had kids too you know and its fact that you pay into this. Fair or not its how the system has worked and kept working.

While Democrats have fought to protect current benefit levels,
Republicans have been adamant that taxes should not be raised to cover
the Social Security shortfall.

Phil Swaigel, Treasury’s assistant secretary for economic policy,
told reporters that the plan was to issue about six issue briefs on
Social Security over the next three months. But he said it was
“unclear” at the moment whether the papers would lead to a new push to
get an overhaul program through Congress next year.

Interesting since what the “Issues” are , are unknown to normal joe blow. if the issues were set on the table maybe people would have a better insight rather than playing imaginary math.

Many believe such an effort would be highly unlikely to gain success
in 2008, a presidential election year when one-third of the Senate and
all House members will also be facing re-election.

Paulson, however, has said even if he is not able to achieve an
agreement during the short time the current administration will be in
office, he hopes to lay the groundwork for the next administration and
a new Congress to tackle the problem.

its not the fact of the election its the fact of going out with a bang and say . LOOK WHAT I DID! , I fixed X. and ten years down the road we find that this new fix is actaully something that buries social securty further into the ground than a sattlelite that was programed in feet but set to meters.

my feeling points to me that the data is flawed on reasoning they are using a fixed point. where this does not actaully represent the actual numbers here.