ATTN Seniors: Trumps calls for cuts to Social Security, Medicare

[Aryeh Jay]

When the President submits a budget, it is considered to be approved by.... the President. Currently the President is Donald J. Trump. You may have heard of him.

Take it slow; not everyone understands how the government works.

 

[TLK Valentine]

So quoting someone making a claim is now a scare tactic?

Depends on how scared it makes people who don't want to hear it.

 

[1000Flames]

It's in the budget he just submitted!!!

You see, he asked where the President SAID it, not where he wrote it down. Totally different. Totally clears the President. Thank you!

 

[Elliewaves]

The poor and the elderly should be willing to give their lives for the wall. It's a sacrifice that proves how American they really are.

*note: I am not being serious .

 

[cow451]

Take it slow; not everyone understands how the government works.

Apparently.

 

[Veritas]

This will reduce healthcare costs for the federal government.

You gotta ask yourself, in the richest country in the world, or so I hear, do poor people really need or deserve healthcare? Let's take that money and SSI, which, let's face it, just encourages people to be disabled, and build us a beautiful wall.

We currently spend more than the next five countries put together on our military? Well, let's make it more than the next seven! We got to have the best, military anyway.

Social Security was never designed to do what it now does. Over the years it went from being a old age pension safety net in which the average person collected 13 payments before dying (life expectancy was 58 for men and 62 for women in 1930). Over the years, all sorts of additional benefits have been added (including SSI, widows and children of widows, etc.) and the number of years a person collects has risen astronomically. Consequently, SS is paying out billions more than projected. They're running out of money. The only hope we have is that the Millennial generation will hit their prime years with good paying jobs and we soak them with large SS taxes to keep the system afloat. Given their socialist tendencies, they shouldn't mind.

 

[Veritas]

The poor and the elderly should be willing to give their lives for the wall. It's a sacrifice that proves how American they really are.

*note: I am not being serious .

Just like the poor and elderly should be willing to sacrifice for Obamacare. $700 billion was cut from Medicare to prop it up.

 

[98cwitr]

I would like an opt-out option of SS and Medicare please.

 

[FireDragon76]

Worse than that for Trump. It should be a gunshot wound to his foot in a re-election race. Democrats could run simply on this and be able to put a dent in Trump’s older demographic base.

Hard to be excited for a candidate when all you have to eat is dog food.

 

[cow451]

I would like an opt-out option of SS and Medicare please.

No law requires you accept the benefits.

 

[98cwitr]

No law requires you accept the benefits.

Then why does my employer force me to have it taken out of my paycheck? I never signed up for it.

Seems there is a law that forces me into it: Is there a way to opt out of Social Security?

 

[essentialsaltes]

Just like the poor and elderly should be willing to sacrifice for Obamacare. $700 billion was cut from Medicare to prop it up.

It didn't come from the poor and elderly. It mainly came from private insurance companies who were running plans that wound up costing more than Medicare (not less as proposed by W).

What kind of spending reductions are we talking about? They were mainly aimed at insurance companies and hospitals, not beneficiaries. The law makes significant reductions to Medicare Advantage, a subset of Medicare plans run by private insurers. Medicare Advantage was started under President George W. Bush, and the idea was that competition among the private insurers would reduce costs. But in recent years the plans have actually cost more than traditional Medicare. So the health care law scales back the payments to private insurers.

Possibly they were poor and elderly insurance companies, who depended on the taxpayer to keep them alive.

 

[DaisyDay]

Social Security was never designed to do what it now does. Over the years it went from being a old age pension safety net in which the average person collected 13 payments before dying (life expectancy was 58 for men and 62 for women in 1930). Over the years, all sorts of additional benefits have been added (including SSI, widows and children of widows, etc.) and the number of years a person collects has risen astronomically. Consequently, SS is paying out billions more than projected. They're running out of money. The only hope we have is that the Millennial generation will hit their prime years with good paying jobs and we soak them with large SS taxes to keep the system afloat. Given their socialist tendencies, they shouldn't mind.

Life expectancy at birth was 58 for men and 62 for women in 1930 because so many people died as children - this was before antibiotics and vaccines. People who made it to 65 usually lived for several more years. Furthermore, married women generally didn't contribute to their own accounts but took spousal benefits. The average man collected for 13 years, not 13 monthly payments and women lived even longer. (source)

 

[cow451]

Then why does my employer force me to have it taken out of my paycheck? I never signed up for it.
Seems there is a law that forces me into it: Is there a way to opt out of Social Security?

I stand corrected. Sorry for your loss.

You can still opt out of receiving benefits and chalk up your payroll deductions as your selfless contribution to your fellow Americans.

Surprisingly, most people with your outrage seem to line up when they become eligible for benefits. Like Ayn Rand did.

You could also go off the grid and work for cash.

 

[ArmenianJohn]

Then why does my employer force me to have it taken out of my paycheck? I never signed up for it.

Seems there is a law that forces me into it: Is there a way to opt out of Social Security?

It's the law. It has to be taken out of your paycheck. It doesn't go to your employer. What's the problem?

 

[Veritas]

Life expectancy at birth was 58 for men and 62 for women in 1930 because so many people died as children - this was before antibiotics and vaccines. People who made it to 65 usually lived for several more years. Furthermore, married women generally didn't contribute to their own accounts but took spousal benefits. The average man collected for 13 years, not 13 monthly payments and women lived even longer. (source)

If I misread months vs. years, I apologize. However, the average collection time is waaaay longer now. Certainly you can't argue otherwise. I know people who've been collecting SS 30+ years now. They are in their 90's and contributed very little to the system because the tax was so low during most of their working years. That's why the it's in trouble. As I said, we need the M Gen to step up to keep it going.

 

[FireDragon76]

Life expectancy at birth was 58 for men and 62 for women in 1930 because so many people died as children - this was before antibiotics and vaccines. People who made it to 65 usually lived for several more years. Furthermore, married women generally didn't contribute to their own accounts but took spousal benefits. The average man collected for 13 years, not 13 monthly payments and women lived even longer. (source)

Once you factor out smoking, I'm sure alot of folks back in the day could live quite a while past 65. In many ways, the number of smokers in the last century did alot to lower the cost of social security, in a macabre sort of way. Now that people are quitting, I'm sure costs are going up.

 

[ArmenianJohn]

I would like an opt-out option of SS and Medicare please.

I would like an opt-out option of the excessive military spending, please.

 

[DaisyDay]

If I misread months vs. years, I apologize. However, the average collection time is waaaay longer now. Certainly you can't argue otherwise. I know people who've been collecting SS 30+ years now. They are in their 90's and contributed very little to the system because the tax was so low during most of their working years. That's why the it's in trouble. As I said, we need the M Gen to step up to keep it going.

I had two great-grandmothers and one grandmother who lived well into their nineties. My other grandmother died in her eighties. My mother died in her early sixties.

Life expectancies are going down nowadays. I think the opioid epidemic has contributed to that as well as Americans' massive obesity and lack of exercise.

 

[cow451]

I would like an opt-out option of the excessive military spending, please.

Didn’t read the EULA, did I you?