"Talk to your Congressman. Your Senator (in MN, good luck with that one!). Your state Representatives and Senators. If any of them tell you, "Gosh, we would like to do it, but we just can't afford it", tell them to go suck an egg. It is our money damn it! Give it back!"
A word of warning before I start. This article might not be for you. It is only for people who are on Social Security, will be some day, have parents on it, friends on it, or care about tax justice. If you do not fall into any these categories, please go on to the next article.
Great news folks! I am going on a spending spree today! I got a raise (COLA) in my Social Security this year! A 2% raise! What does that mean? After the uptick in a few dollars, offset by the increase in my Medicare payment, my monthly check went up $10.23. Big whoop. Of course, I should be grateful as in 2016 the COLA was .3% and the year before it was zero.
When I was working, I never wanted Social Security to be deducted out of my paycheck. I knew it was a scam back then - I just did not know how much of a scam. I wanted the 15% my employer and I had to kick in every month. Working over 36 years at a good salary, that would have been quite a haul. I would have loved to have taken control for the future and the growth of that money.
But nobody was given the option to "opt out" of this government Ponzi Scheme. So here we are - stuck. Prior to the mid 80's however, it was not as bad. Why not? Social Security was not taxable from a Federal or State perspective. Now it is for Federal, and only a few states (like Minnesota) still tax the socks off their seniors, by taxing Social Security has harshly as the feds do.
Here is where the fairness comes into play. In the beginning, the IRS Social Security Commission made the determination Social Security should NOT be taxed. Then what happened? Bottom line? Both the feds and the states needed the money. And seniors were an easy target. But that was then, and this is now. Seniors are no longer such as easy target as we have wised up. Plus, our numbers have grown - we are now quite an army.
This year in 2018, our battle cry should be NO TAX what-so-ever on ANY Social Security. None. Do you want to give seniors a real raise rather than the zero, .3 and 2% they have seen lately? Take the tax off their benefits. Put them back to what they used to be - zero tax. That is the fair and the right thing to do.
Talk to your Congressman. Your Senator (in MN, good luck with that one!). Your state Representatives and Senators. If any of them tell you, "Gosh, we would like to do it, but we just can't afford it", tell them to go suck an egg. It is our money damn it! Give it back!
Our elected officials, Republicans and Democrats, want to tax ANY & ALL income we get! They do because unfortunately that is how they get elected and reelected, by buying votes with our taxes.
ReplyDeleteWhat is really maddening is that this Ponzi scheme has achieved "third rail" status despite the math. Simple fact: the "trust fund" does not exist, consisting entirely of government "IOUs" that Congress must redeem from the General Fund in order to pay promised benefits. And they are doing so NOW, not 20 years from now, driving up the deficit.
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ReplyDeleteThere are simple fixes for SS. Not so simple for Medicare/aid
ReplyDelete1 Trimming benefits for upper-income recipients, who live longer and draw larger benefits, could close about 10 percent of the system’s long-term funding gap.
2 Raise the level of wages subject to Social Security payroll tax to about $200,000 from the current $113,700. That would bring the taxable wage base in line with rising incomes among top earners.
3 Raise the payroll tax rate, currently 6.2 percent for both workers and employers. The rate has not been raised since 1990. A one percentage point increase could be phased in over 20 years and still raise enough revenue to close about half of the funding gap.
It is imperative that the frenzy that passes these days for deficit debate not engulf Social Security.
There are rational and acceptable fixes to the program that could preserve it for generations to come, if political will can be found to enact them.
Finding the will among the conservative sheep occupying Congress is the problem.
The problem with these "simple fixes" is that they never get at the fundamental Ponzi scheme nature of SS or the desire of politicians to make promises they cannot afford to keep. How about this simple fix:
ReplyDelete1) Anybody over age 57 (5 years from early SS) continues their current taxes and benefits.
2) Anybody 45-57 pays 4% into SS and 2% goes into a mandatory IRA that they own and control. (Employer taxes continue.)
3) Anybody 35-45 pays 2% into SS and 4% into their IRA.
4) Those under 35 put all their SS taxes into their IRA.
EVERYBODY receives SS benefits according to what they paid in, meaning that for the most part SS payments will dwindle to nothing over the next 30 years or so, solving the problem. Maybe these break points would need to be jiggered to make the math work-- that is, income matches outgo-- but it is far better than continuing the pretense that ANY math beyond the magical mythical money tree works for the current system.
Sounds like a plan. Call your GOP congressmen and get them on it!
DeleteHeh. Senator Rod Grams (R-MN) put forward this plan 20 years ago, when the "transition" would have been much easier. Democrats keep insisting on sending this train across the canyon without a bridge.
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