Trump’s Plans Threaten an End to the Social Security System

[dqhall]

Trump has stated he wants permanent cuts to payroll taxes. Ninety percent of Social Security is funded through payroll taxes. The surplus in the Social Security fund might be exhausted within three years without the Social Security payroll deductions.

Fact check: Donald Trump hasn't said he will terminate Social Security

 

[bèlla]

dqhall,

I wish we had the option of contributing or abstaining. I prefer to manage my resources.

Yours in His Service,

~Bella

 

[dqhall]

dqhall,

I wish we had the option of contributing or abstaining. I prefer to manage my resources.

Yours in His Service,

~Bella

Trump had stated repeatedly he wanted to make payroll tax cuts permanent, then made a statement reversing earlier statements. There is no telling what he will do.

 

[Albion]

This claim that is seen on TV commercials is really one of the more disreputable of the campaign claims being made these days.

Social Security benefits were set up to be paid from a trust fund, which is not literal but just a matter of bookkeeping, and "it" is funded by payroll taxes. Those moneys have not kept up with conditions and with Congress' frequent tinkering with the benefits structure.

What has happened is that the federal government, meaning Congress, has borrowed from that trust fund repeatedly and left IOUs behind.

As a result, it has been said for many years that the trust fund will soon be exhausted.

That's the trust fund. However, Congress will never allow beneficiaries to be cut off.

What will happen is that more money will be taken from general revenues in order to keep the benefits in force. Everyone in Congress knows this.

So for the Biden campaign to now contend that Trump wants to cut people off--or that the benefits will end in a few years because of a shortage in the trust fund--is terribly wrong. But people think that the elderly are easily terrified, so....

We have increased the national debt by 6 Trillion dollars in just the recent past, therefore what I've described will simply become another part of that story, whether or not the trust fund runs out or the payroll taxes are cut (which isn't likely).

 

[bèlla]

Trump had stated repeatedly he wanted to make payroll tax cuts permanent, then made a statement reversing earlier statements. There is no telling what he will do.

dqhall,

I don't know what will happen politically. But there are some who'd welcome the extra money to invest in the manner they deem best. Others would seek a similar method which insures the money is available for them at a later date. I recommend that approach for those whose spending habits or management skills would compromise their welfare down the road.

Yours in His Service,

~Bella

 

[solid_core]

Is the USA the last developed country on the planet without a common social and health care system? Or are there also others?

 

[dqhall]

Is the USA the last developed country on the planet without a common social and health care system? Or are there also others?

We have a combination of private and public health insurance. More money is spent on healthcare per capita in the US than any other nation on earth. People do not live as long in the US as in developed nations with universal healthcare.

 

[dqhall]

This claim that is seen on TV commercials is really one of the more disreputable of the campaign claims being made these days.

Social Security benefits were set up to be paid from a trust fund, which is not literal but just a matter of bookkeeping, and "it" is funded by payroll taxes. Those moneys have not kept up with conditions and with Congress' frequent tinkering with the benefits structure.

What has happened is that the federal government, meaning Congress, has borrowed from that trust fund repeatedly and left IOUs behind.

As a result, it has been said for many years that the trust fund will soon be exhausted.

That's the trust fund. However, Congress will never allow beneficiaries to be cut off.

What will happen is that more money will be taken from general revenues in order to keep the benefits in force. Everyone in Congress knows this.

So for the Biden campaign to now contend that Trump wants to cut people off--or that the benefits will end in a few years because of a shortage in the trust fund--is terribly wrong. But people think that the elderly are easily terrified, so....

We have increased the national debt by 6 Trillion dollars in just the recent past, therefore what I've described will simply become another part of that story, whether or not the trust fund runs out or the payroll taxes are cut (which isn't likely).

Trump has repeatedly asked for reductions to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He asked for the elimination of Obamacare.

Trump backed off from permanent cuts to payroll taxes for now. Some of his base do not want to pay Social Security taxes. They want to invest for their retirements.

In 1983 they increased the full retirement age from 65 to 67 for those born after 1960. This was to accommodate those who do not want tax increases. Ronald Reagan was president then.

 

[AvilaSurfer]

The OP is 100% false.

 

[Albion]

Trump has repeatedly asked for reductions to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He asked for the elimination of Obamacare.

Obamacare is separate from those others; and I don't recall him repeatedly asking for reductions to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits with nothing else being done to address those needs.

Trump backed off from permanent cuts to payroll taxes for now.

That's right.

In the recent past they increased the full retirement age from 65 to 67 for those born after 1960. This was to accommodate those who do not want tax increases.

No, it was to stretch the SS benefits as more retirees are living longer now than ever was envisioned when the original law was passed in the 1930s.

Similar actions that have been taken by Congress over the years include taxing the benefits (they were originally tax free), allowing certain retirees to continue working without jeopardizing their benefits (with these additional earnings being subject to payroll taxes of course), and numerous raises in the income level that is subject to the payroll tax.

 

[dqhall]

The OP is 100% false.

You only got part of the story, not even 50% of the story. Marketwatch is published by the Wall Street Journal. They quoted Trump, ““If victorious on November 3rd, I plan to forgive these taxes and make permanent cuts to the payroll tax,” he vowed, adding “I’m going to make them all permanent.”

Trump’s election year gamble: Messing with Social Security and Medicare

If he cuts payroll taxes, that cuts funding to Social Security.

 

[dqhall]

Obamacare is separate from those others; and I don't recall him repeatedly asking for reductions to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits with nothing else being done to address those needs.


That's right.


No, it was to stretch the SS benefits as more retirees are living longer now than ever was envisioned when the original law was passed in the 1930s.

Similar actions that have been taken by Congress over the years include taxing the benefits (they were originally tax free), allowing certain retirees to continue working without jeopardizing their benefits (with these additional earnings being subject to payroll taxes of course), and numerous raises in the income level that is subject to the payroll tax.

This is one of numerous requests to cut social spending:
Trump said he wouldn’t cut Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare. His 2020 budget cuts all 3.

 

[Albion]

If he cuts payroll taxes, that cuts funding to Social Security.

It cuts only one means of funding SS. And that means is already insufficient.

Some change is in order and it doesn't have anything to do with cutting benefits. But cutting benefits is what the viewer is expected to think has been proposed when he sees that TV commercial.

 

[chilehed]

Trump’s Plans Threaten an End to the Social Security System

The fact that Social Security is a Ponzie scheme guarantees that it will collapse, and Trump's plans have nothing to do with it. It needs to be ended for the good of the nation, so we should support a plan that shuts it down in a controlled manner rather than letting it implode.

 

[chilehed]

Is the USA the last developed country on the planet without a common social and health care system?

The question assumes a falsehood. The USA does have a common social and health care system, and it's the best in the world.

 

[dqhall]

It cuts only one means of funding SS. And that means is already insufficient.

Some change is in order and it doesn't have anything to do with cutting benefits. But cutting benefits is what the viewer is expected to think has been proposed when he sees that TV commercial.

For three years Trump has asked Congress for budget cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

One in four seniors rely on Social Security for 90 percent of their income:
Policy Basics: Top Ten Facts about Social Security

 

[Albion]

The fact that Social Security is a Ponzie scheme guarantees that it will collapse, and Trump's plans have nothing to do with it.

That's often said, but whether true or not it's off the subject, which is whether the President wants to destroy SS, cut people off from their benefits, etc. etc. and all that nonsense.

On the contrary, his comments about the financing aspect of Social Security is about keeping it going rather than letting it become what some people call a "Ponzi scheme."

To the extent that it might be a "Ponzi scheme" as originally set up, it is so if the trust fund were relied upon. But if that source of income were replaced with something more certain, then the change would be a move away from the "Ponzi scheme" idea.

 

[chilehed]

To the extent that it might be a "Ponzi scheme" as originally set up, it is so if the trust fund were relied upon. But if that source of income were replaced with something more certain, then the change would be a move away from the "Ponzi scheme" idea.

You obviously don't know what a Ponzie scheme is. A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors, and that's exactly how the SS system works.

There is no SS Trust Fund. It's a fiction.

 

[Arc F1]

We have a combination of private and public health insurance. More money is spent on healthcare per capita in the US than any other nation on earth. People do not live as long in the US as in developed nations with universal healthcare.

My mother in law is 92. Her whole family lives to be around a 100. Universal health care won't keep her around longer.

 

[Arc F1]

For three years Trump has asked Congress for budget cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

One in four seniors rely on Social Security for 90 percent of their income:
Policy Basics: Top Ten Facts about Social Security

I heard about cutting waste but not cuts to ss.