Social Security

[DKG]

Social Security is facing a $22.4 trillion long-term funding obligation shortfall. The program generated 90% of its revenue in 2022 from the payroll tax on earned income (wages and salary, but not investment income), and an additional 4% from the taxation of Social Security benefits. As long as Americans keep working and paying their taxes, there will always be money flowing into the program that can be disbursed to eligible beneficiaries. In other words, if you qualify for a Social Security benefit, you're going to receive one, when eligible.

The issue is that Social Security's projected outlays, as outlined in the 2023 Social Security Board of Trustees Report, are vastly outpacing estimated revenue collection over the long term (i.e., the 75 years following the release of a report). Through 2097, the Trustees Report estimates a $22.4 trillion funding obligation shortfall.

According to the Trustees Report, if the asset reserves (excess capital collected since inception) of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund (OASI) were to be exhausted, sweeping benefit cuts of up to 23% may be needed by as early as 2033 to avoid any additional benefit reductions over the long term. Once again, it's not an issue of solvency so much as avoiding a possible 23% reduction to Social Security benefits for OASI recipients in the not-too-distant future.

[Biggie Smiles]

Nice.

But hey, keep pouring funds into Ukraine instead of taking care of our own with the very monies they supply.

Democrats are cockroaches

[DKG]

Biden wants to make four key changes to Social Security

Social Security's deepening financial woes aren't lost on lawmakers. During his campaign for the presidency, then-candidate Joe Biden released a four-point plan designed to strengthen America's leading retirement program.

1. Reinstate the payroll tax on earned income above $400,000
The linchpin to Biden's Social Security plan is to reinstate the 12.4% payroll tax on the earned income of high earners.

In 2023, earned income between $0.01 and $160,200 is subject to Social Security's payroll tax. Approximately 94% of workers generate annual earned income below the maximum taxable earnings cap (the $160,200 figure), and therefore pay into Social Security with every dollar they earn. Meanwhile, earned income above $160,200 is exempt from the payroll tax.

Under Biden's proposal, the payroll tax would be reinstated on earned income above $400,000, with a doughnut hole created between the maximum taxable earnings cap and $400,000 where earned income would remain exempt. Since the maximum taxable earnings cap rises most years in line with the National Average Wage Index, this doughnut hole would be expected to close after numerous decades. Biden's plan would, in time, make all earned income applicable to the payroll tax.

2. Swap out the CPI-W with the CPI-E
The second big change would see the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) replaced by the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E).

The CPI-W has been Social Security's measure of inflation since 1975 and is used to determine annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). The problem is that the CPI-W tracks the spending habits of "urban wage earners and clerical workers," who are typically not seniors and not receiving a Social Security benefit.

As the CPI-E's full name implies, it tracks the spending habits of households with seniors aged 62 and above. Since well over 80% of Social Security beneficiaries are aged 62 and over, it makes sense to utilize an index that tracks their spending habits. Switching to the CPI-E should result in higher annual COLAs for all beneficiaries.

3. Increase the special minimum benefit
Joe Biden also proposed increasing the special minimum benefit for lifetime low-earning workers. In 2023, a lifetime low-earning worker with 30 years of coverage will max out with a monthly benefit of $1,033.50. That's below the poverty level for a single filer of $1,215 per month.

Biden's simple solution would be to raise the special minimum benefit to 125% of the federal poverty level for a single filer. If this proposal were, hypothetically, law today, the special minimum benefit would be $1,518.75 per month in 2023 instead of $1,033.50.

4. Lift the primary insurance amount for aged beneficiaries
The fourth big Social Security change proposed by then-candidate Joe Biden was to gradually increase the primary insurance amount (PIA) for older Americans receiving Social Security.

The way it would work is the PIA would rise by 1% annually, beginning at age 78 and continuing through age 82. This aggregate 5% increase in the PIA is designed to help aged beneficiaries somewhat offset higher expenses as they age, such as prescription medicines and/or medical transportation costs.

[DKG]

Biden's full proposal would be expected to extend the solvency of the asset reserves by about five years according to the Urban Institute. If we make the assumption that the Urban Institute's analysis in 2020 would still hold true in 2023, we're talking about the OASI's asset reserves running dry by 2038 instead of 2033.

After running the math, it's clear that Biden's four-point Social Security plan would give the program some extra breathing room, but it would do little to resolve the $22.4 trillion (and growing) long-term funding obligation shortfall.

[Lokmar]

I would eliminate SSI if I could. Its a fukin ponzi scheme. Every year, I pay in about $8500 that I'll never see again.

[caskur]

I would eliminate SSI if I could. Its a fukin ponzi scheme. Every year, I pay in about $8500 that I'll never see again.

There was no SSI in England so there was a roaring trade pick pocketing...... 1800s

no welfare equals = CONSTANT theft that will cost you wayyyyy more than $8,500 a year.

[Lokmar]

There was no SSI in England so there was a roaring trade pick pocketing...... 1800s

no welfare equals = CONSTANT theft that will cost you wayyyyy more than $8,500 a year.

There should be a constant stream of dead bodies. SSI and the like in other countries is way out of control. Its government theft. I could sit here and go through the laundry list of reasons but I'm lazy and you'd be bored. People need to die.

[caskur]

There should be a constant stream of dead bodies. SSI and the like in other countries is way out of control. Its government theft. I could sit here and go through the laundry list of reasons but I'm lazy and you'd be bored. People need to die.

Take away welfare and people will die... The rich, not the poor.

People shouldn't breed if they don't have a home or job and marriage. Start there. That is where our problems start.

[Lokmar]

Take away welfare and people will die... The rich, not the poor.

People shouldn't breed if they don't have a home or job and marriage. Start there. That is where our problems start.

In America, SSI started off at 1% paid by employer and 1% paid by employee. Now its 13.2% divided between employee and employer up to a certain dollar amount. Thankfully that shit is capped at $8,500ish per year.

If you make less than or up to the cap, you're fucked and you'll pay the entire 6.6% and the employer will pay the other half.  If you're self employed, you pay the ENTIRE 13.2%!!!!!!. An employer should be writing a check to me for that money, NOT the government!!! In actual dollars for me, as I make over what its capped at, that translates into over $12,000 I could have otherwise invested in my own damned private retirement year to date!

I've paid $6,000 into my private retirement this year and is GUARANTEED to sit in an account for me. If I die, my family gets it. If I die, my family gets $250 to bury me out of the 10's of thousands I've paid in over the years. There aint no way in hell I'll recoup 1/4 what I've paid into SSI, even if I do make it to the age where I can draw money out!!!!

Plenty of fucking deadbeats in the country draw SSI having NEVER paid in!!! I bet in many countries, the abuse and waste is as bad or worse!

And I aint even talking welfare!!!!!!!! SSI is paid by me directly!

Now if I'm the rich at less than $200K/yr and the dregs wanna make me die. Fuking bring em on! I bet I kill shitloads more of them before they get me.