Social security will be around for another 75 years. First, you remove the Cap, and tax income up to the first $10million--including Capital Gains. Second, you raise the Minimum wage to $20.00 an hour---you make more thus you pay more into SS. Third, the wealthy and Corporations should be taxed at a rate around 50%--Reagan lowered the corporate rate to 27% in 1981. Fourth, Corporate welfare should be cut by 100%---why are we cutting taxes for the wealthy corporations, Fifth, cut DEFENSE spending---we will not be destroyed by some other country---we are destroying our country by catering to the wealthy--who will fail to be held ACCOUNTABLE.
Ed, lets leave the retirement age alone. In fact, let's move full SS benefits back to age 65.
Remove the cap entirely and exempt the frist $50,000 a person earns. That will get the Boomers (like me) out of the way and let the next gen have some fiscal breathing room. The shit my (our) generation has pulled on those following us is shameful.
Good article. I raised the issue of fiscal responsibility at a recent Rotary meeting and it was suggested that another commission like the Greeenspan Commission be appointed.
I like the commission approach. I know many will roll their eyes at the idea. But I read an article recently that essentially said that's been the only process that's been proven to work on politically intractable problems like this.
Remember how terrible the economy was from 1993 to 2000? No? Well, that's understandable, because it WASN'T awful. And those were the same years that sound policy on taxes eliminated the federal deficit.
There's no one politician or party to blame. If we did feel the need to assess blame then we'd go back to LBJ years. That said, through the years both parties and virtually all politicians have opted in some fashion to either fund "their project," cut taxes for "their people," or some combination thereof. The pilfering of the Social Security funds and the Federal Highway Trust fund to pay for what I call "mission creep" is what's to blame. It's easy to pay for whatever you want from what is essentially someone else's money. A recognition of the root cause is also necessary. WE are the root cause. When I served in elected office I was asked how an entrance to a community college was a Federal issue. I served "my people" by stating it's the intersection with US Hwy 67 that makes it Federal. With that, we got the money. Now, take that little project times the 1000's of requests/demands along with all the human entitlements and we have a collective problem; we all find it easier to simply pay for a problem with "someone else's money." Maggie Thatcher said it best in the 1980's, "Socialism works until the last person's pocket is dry." BTW, I don't recall any articles about the terrible method in which funding was obtained for the college entrance and yet somehow we received both Republican, Democrat, Independent, and agnostic dollars. To be clear and come full circle regarding both parties being to blame. I don't recall during the first two years of the Biden Administration when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the Executive Branch any move to repeal the Trump tax cuts of 2017 and replace them in any way, shape, or form. Spending is our collective problem.
Actually, Mike, I wrote a series of articles about 20 years for the QC Times that dealt with congressional earmarks and how they affected the federal deficit. One of those articles included the community college project, along with many others in the QC. (By the way, I agree that, ultimately, we as a people are a big part of the problem here. But I also believe we count on our representatives in government to forge solutions even in the face of political difficulty.)
You're right. I had forgotten that you did have a series of articles regarding earmarks. As I recall, you also made reference at some point to the altruistic approach that the late Representative Jim Leach had to Federal Gov't. funding of projects vs. earmarks. Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks for bringing this up again. I agree with your multiple solutions to solve the problem including raising the retirement age. I would allow exemptions for those that have physically demanding jobs that raising the retirement age is not reasonable. You started out talking about our federal deficits that have ballooned under Republican leadership. Republicans continue to put all the blame on social programs and fail to recognize the real issue is on the revenue side of the equation. Americans want those social programs and the wealthiest and corporations need to pony up. DOSE didn’t touch solving the problem and again points out the disinformation about the causes of our deficits along with military spending that is out of control
The ultra-wealthy are flying high and worry-free, having lifted themselves up by our bootstraps.
Social security will be around for another 75 years. First, you remove the Cap, and tax income up to the first $10million--including Capital Gains. Second, you raise the Minimum wage to $20.00 an hour---you make more thus you pay more into SS. Third, the wealthy and Corporations should be taxed at a rate around 50%--Reagan lowered the corporate rate to 27% in 1981. Fourth, Corporate welfare should be cut by 100%---why are we cutting taxes for the wealthy corporations, Fifth, cut DEFENSE spending---we will not be destroyed by some other country---we are destroying our country by catering to the wealthy--who will fail to be held ACCOUNTABLE.
Ed, lets leave the retirement age alone. In fact, let's move full SS benefits back to age 65.
Remove the cap entirely and exempt the frist $50,000 a person earns. That will get the Boomers (like me) out of the way and let the next gen have some fiscal breathing room. The shit my (our) generation has pulled on those following us is shameful.
It's a good time to be old.
Good article. I raised the issue of fiscal responsibility at a recent Rotary meeting and it was suggested that another commission like the Greeenspan Commission be appointed.
I like the commission approach. I know many will roll their eyes at the idea. But I read an article recently that essentially said that's been the only process that's been proven to work on politically intractable problems like this.
Remember how terrible the economy was from 1993 to 2000? No? Well, that's understandable, because it WASN'T awful. And those were the same years that sound policy on taxes eliminated the federal deficit.
There's no one politician or party to blame. If we did feel the need to assess blame then we'd go back to LBJ years. That said, through the years both parties and virtually all politicians have opted in some fashion to either fund "their project," cut taxes for "their people," or some combination thereof. The pilfering of the Social Security funds and the Federal Highway Trust fund to pay for what I call "mission creep" is what's to blame. It's easy to pay for whatever you want from what is essentially someone else's money. A recognition of the root cause is also necessary. WE are the root cause. When I served in elected office I was asked how an entrance to a community college was a Federal issue. I served "my people" by stating it's the intersection with US Hwy 67 that makes it Federal. With that, we got the money. Now, take that little project times the 1000's of requests/demands along with all the human entitlements and we have a collective problem; we all find it easier to simply pay for a problem with "someone else's money." Maggie Thatcher said it best in the 1980's, "Socialism works until the last person's pocket is dry." BTW, I don't recall any articles about the terrible method in which funding was obtained for the college entrance and yet somehow we received both Republican, Democrat, Independent, and agnostic dollars. To be clear and come full circle regarding both parties being to blame. I don't recall during the first two years of the Biden Administration when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the Executive Branch any move to repeal the Trump tax cuts of 2017 and replace them in any way, shape, or form. Spending is our collective problem.
Actually, Mike, I wrote a series of articles about 20 years for the QC Times that dealt with congressional earmarks and how they affected the federal deficit. One of those articles included the community college project, along with many others in the QC. (By the way, I agree that, ultimately, we as a people are a big part of the problem here. But I also believe we count on our representatives in government to forge solutions even in the face of political difficulty.)
You're right. I had forgotten that you did have a series of articles regarding earmarks. As I recall, you also made reference at some point to the altruistic approach that the late Representative Jim Leach had to Federal Gov't. funding of projects vs. earmarks. Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks for bringing this up again. I agree with your multiple solutions to solve the problem including raising the retirement age. I would allow exemptions for those that have physically demanding jobs that raising the retirement age is not reasonable. You started out talking about our federal deficits that have ballooned under Republican leadership. Republicans continue to put all the blame on social programs and fail to recognize the real issue is on the revenue side of the equation. Americans want those social programs and the wealthiest and corporations need to pony up. DOSE didn’t touch solving the problem and again points out the disinformation about the causes of our deficits along with military spending that is out of control