I smiled when I heard tough talk about social security during the debate last night, did you?

Social security is not a problem, believe it or not...





Social Security is not in crisis. The explanation is way too long to go into here but, Alan Greenspan gave, in his recently published book, an honest and accurate assessment of where we are. We are fine and it is not a looming budget crisis as many candidates attested to.





Left out of last night's debate is that Social Security is NOT a budget line item. The budget borrows money from the account and doesn't return it to out-pace the debt service and administration of the program, but, it is NOTa part of the federal budget. Nobody gets a chance to vote for or veto it. The media has led everyone to believe otherwise. It's just not true that social security is in any trouble looking out 30 years and making conservative fiscal assumptions on employment and the "annuity" to be paid..

I smiled when I heard tough talk about social security during the debate last night, did you?
Yeah, I got the feeling they were fudging some facts about Social Security. I didn't realize Social Security was not a budget item, so they had me fooled.





But even with all the spin, "reforming'' Social Security is still a non starter. For example, I can't imagine the Michiganders want to eliminate Social Security after losing their auto company pensions. The Repubs. must be playing to the old time conservative base: the one that was based on rolling back the New Deal, pointing nuclear missiles at Russia, and eliminating the UN.





My feeling is that Social Security would have few problems if the Trust Fund wasn't being raided. I don't think this will be difficult for most people to comprehend if they ever get a truthful explanation.





Medicare is the what will really bankrupt the treasury. Of course, Republicans can't talk about this without raising criticisms of their big pharm give away and the unsustainable system of medical care that we have for everyone.
Reply:Social Security will be just fine if the gov't would quit borrowing from the Social Security program itself





It's not a perfect system, but better than nothing. Politicians, especially Republicans, need to keep their greedy hands off of it.
Reply:You are correct. All of the economists are wrong.
Reply:I am 67 and already drawing social security, so whatever they do, I won't be affected... but anyone in their 50's needs to start worrying.
Reply:Obviously we are not reading the same material. When social security was founded, 10 workers supported 1 retired person. Today 6 workers are supporting a retired person. Estimates in 15 to 20 years say that as few as 4 to 5 will be supporting a retired worker.





Social security as we know it today is broken. First of all, the money collected by FICA goes into the general fund for politicians to spend. There is no Social Security Lockbox. Just a bunch of federal IOU's right now.





Secondly, Social Security is getting about 1.5% return on the money it lends the government. Hello! My 401K is getting a 15 to 20% return. Why shouldn't I be able to take my 6.2% that goes to FICA and place it in a government approved 401K for retirement. If I am forced to contribute, why can't I manage my own piece. That way the politicians will not spend it. My employer also pays 6.2% of what I make into Social Security. This should be used to support those who are less fortunate.





If I can control my money, I can also pass this onto my children in the future. So the nest egg that I earned can also be used to support my children in the future. This makes much more sense than the crap program that we have today.