Obama puts Social Security in play

[idlewind]

The devil is in the details, but I for one would trade oil subsidies and tax breaks for jets in order to get real spending cuts and a balanced budget. Tackling Social Security is a must for that to happen.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...ecurity-cuts/2011/07/06/gIQA2sFO1H_story.html

 

[futurebeachbum]

Drastic actions resulting in both spending reductions and revenue increases are needed and are needed now.

I still don't believe that our politicians (or their investors) have the stomach to make the changes needed. This is especially true in the House. Their every-two-year-re-election-cycle makes it almost impossible for them to do anything but serve the people who fund their elections.

 

[Zebraspots]

Refusing to raise any taxes and only closing loopholes is not enough.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this issue is important enough that we can have a rare show of intelligence and compromise in Washington.

Everyone needs to make sacrifices and concessions.

 

[jamesG]

A report from the Conference Board stated that the cause of a plummeting consumer confidence was the increase of social security taxes in January. However, the unemployment rate continues to hover at 7.8 percent. Until it begins to decline, the nation’s economy will remain soft, economists say.

 

[30a Saluki]

Here is a novel (not really) idea. Privatize Social Security. Social Security offers a negative net return. The same amount of money that has been confiscated by the government over the working lifetime of a person, would have ALWAYS produced a positive returns, far in excess of the so called benefits from SS. There is also the advantage of being able to leave the residual to your children. I work in financial services sector, five years ago, just for grins, ran a hypothetical illustration of what my and my employer's actual contributions to SS would have done over my working career had they been invested in a middle if the road mutual fund. The result was 1.6MM. At a 4% withdrawal rate that translate into $64M per year. The Democrats will always be opposed to privatizing SS. They want to be able to control the purse strings. He who hands out the candy controls the masses, thereby perpetuating their power.