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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsColumn: GOP and Musk unveil a threat to Social Security.
"You may have been tempted to believe Donald Trump when he swore, along with some of his Republican colleagues, to protect Social Security. If so, the joke may be on you.
That concern emerged Monday when Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) uncorked a tweet thread on X labeling Social Security "a classic bait and switch" and "an outdated, mismanaged system."
Twenty-three minutes after Lee posted the first of his tweets, it was retweeted by Elon Musk, who has been vested by Trump with a portfolio to root out inefficiencies in the government. Musk led his retweet with the comment "interesting thread"; if that wasn't an explicit endorsement, it matched his way of amplifying others' tweets, tending to give them credibility within the Musk-iverse."
.........
"Social Security is funded by taxes. So what? Lee's salary as a senator is funded by taxes too. Does that make it illegitimate? It's true that once a tax is collected Congress can decide to spend it however it wishes. But it's also true that the payroll tax was enacted jointly with the provisions of the Social Security Act that designated the revenue for Social Security benefits."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/column-gop-musk-unveil-threat-221131683.html
IT ISN'T A BAIT AND SWITCH. It is like an annuity that we have been paying into, and when we retire we are entitled to to its benefits.
The fraud are these THUGS, and sociopaths that make-up the repuke party. They are degenerate and deplorable human beings.
jimfields33
(19,315 posts)years old until retirement, you would get 3-4 grand instead of 2. Thats a lot of hoping.
Response to jimfields33 (Reply #2)
Kingofalldems This message was self-deleted by its author.
Kingofalldems
(39,290 posts)lastlib
(24,987 posts)Few Americans, even well-educated ones, have the knowledge and skills to put together a proper investment portfolio; to do it well takes extensive knowledge and experience that cannot be acquired readily. And the Wall Street vultures who want to take over our Social Scurity system are going to gut us with exorbitant fees. They didn't dodge the Great Recession bullets, either.
Bottom line: Leave Social Security the F*** ALONE!
markodochartaigh
(2,221 posts)And luck. Most portfolio managers, with training, and following the market in an informed manner daily are unable to beat the simple market averages.
Mike 03
(17,372 posts)A brutally honest investment advisor will always have this hard conversation with his clients, preparing them for difficult times. "One day you are going to wake up and the market will be down 30%" (to use one example).
You can't yoke the social safety net to something so precarious, especially at this moment in history when we are facing such vast geo-political, technological and environmental change and extreme unknowns--increasing conflict and nearly monthly natural disasters plus climate change that instead of preparing for or mitigating we have clearly decided to "wing it" and improvise as we burn up.
wnylib
(24,772 posts)misanthrope
(8,296 posts)Especially if they screw with Medicare on top of SS, because those older Americans will start thinning out quickly without those safety nets. I think that is what the right wing is counting on, the opposition dying off in short order.
The younger generations who have become ever more jaded about seeing any SS will be more likely to take it in stride and let it wither away.
k55f5r
(458 posts)Because they've got nothing to lose at that point. Last I looked, an old person could buy a gun just like a young man.
wnylib
(24,772 posts)by people who have nothing to lose, but can't post them.
drray23
(8,003 posts)Would make a lot of money off that by being able to churn all that money in the stock market. They really don't care if you end up with more money for retirement.
BoRaGard
(3,168 posts)"This is all your fault, you stupid proles.
You believed me. Ha ha.
How stupid you are. Stupid suckers." - G.O.P.'s Greatest Felon/Rapist
DJ Synikus Makisimus
(800 posts)What Mike Lee means is that there's no rich guy making huge bank from it. That's what privatization has ALWAYS been about. "Corporate efficiency" = ability to extract profit.
OMGWTF
(4,480 posts)It's private insurance and they can tell you "NO you do not get to have that operation you need" whereas traditional Medicare supplemental plans cost more but you are covered and can see whichever doc you want.
DJ Synikus Makisimus
(800 posts)Think of how much money we could "save" (re-direct into services, actually) if we eliminated the profit extracted by elite stakeholders in the medical and pharmaceutical industries.
Farmer-Rick
(11,538 posts)The filthy- rich like Musk want your money. They can't stand the idea that Trillions of dollars are sitting there to hand out to the elderly people who put it there. They so need to take a deep cut of it and put it in their pockets and portfolios.
It's like a gambling addiction. You see that lump of money going to your mortgage and you have to get your hands on it because you know you can win the big one.
travelingthrulife
(952 posts)Privatizing Medicare has turned it into an annual nightmare and an absolute bingo game for retirees. Will you be covered, will you not be covered.
kimbutgar
(23,612 posts)If Medicare and social security is eliminated.
Timeflyer
(2,722 posts)Perhaps Musk will invent a Soylent Green solution to reduce the number of Soc Sec recipients.
kimbutgar
(23,612 posts)We'll be 3 years off in the orange Hitler 2.0 disaster presidency!
misanthrope
(8,296 posts)I think he is every bit as malevolent and evil as the orange one. And more dangerous than Trump because he has more money and a better brain.
travelingthrulife
(952 posts)Sit in a comfy chair, put music on and let the lethal drug do its thing.
Cosmocat
(15,053 posts)And every R who talked down to me about how that was ridiculous before the election will be parroting the bs Lee posted, along w some senseless babble about how dems are to blame.
Timeflyer
(2,722 posts)SunSeeker
(54,062 posts)They have no idea what that is like. And they don't care. They are money hoarders who just want to pay less in taxes.
jfz9580m
(15,584 posts)They have no idea what that is like.
All the best to you and your mom. I cant do much for your mom or you but a sincere .
And yes they are horrible. No conscience..
Beachnutt
(8,178 posts)as Democrats taking it.
They'll raise the retirement age first from 67 to 70 for folks born after say 1985 and they will keep hacking away at it until it is gone.
IMO
rampartd
(874 posts)the social security money will be designated a "sovereign wealth fund" and "invested , probably with kushner's hedge fund, in crypto currency.
thast will jack up the price of whatever crypto is to the point wherethe tech bros can cash out their worthless holdings for bug money.
"conservative doctrine considers social security to be a "ponzi scheme," demonstrating that the rubes don't understand social security or ponzi schemes
Colorado Liberal
(154 posts)I'm 62, and I fully expect the retirement age to go up to 70 before I reach 67 (i.e. during Trump's term)
Horse with no Name
(34,076 posts)Im 61.
travelingthrulife
(952 posts)go along with this because it is a tax, thus 'bad'. I think I read somewhere that getting rid of payroll tax would deplete funds in about 6 years. That last part might be faulty memory though.
Trump tried this the last time he was in office.
Nigrum Cattus
(230 posts)Anyone who tries to take it will regret it very quickly.
Also, you would then greatly increase pessimism of
the younger generations towards employers. The 401K
system already destroyed any employee loyalty to employers.
rampartd
(874 posts)trump will probably just declare us to be the domestic terrorists and let the proud boys and such deal with us.
the biggest fafo moment for many maga cultists is when the nursing home calls and gives them until noon to pick up their mom or she will be wheeled into the parking lot.
Dem4life1234
(1,996 posts)Thank God Chile is a different place today, a model of democracy.
That type of barbaric governing doesn't last long.
rampartd
(874 posts)jim crow lasted 80 years
the shaf fled iran 40 years ago, and his reign was less than enlightened.
hell. wkithout medicare i;ll be dead in fairly short order.
Dave says
(4,974 posts)misanthrope
(8,296 posts)I've known for a while I'm a "useless eater." I've even had people in my community say as much.
bluestarone
(18,405 posts)A REVOLT like we are witnessing in South Korea!
NBachers
(18,195 posts)Magoo48
(5,536 posts)Well, if this shot across my fellow oldsters bows doesnt break the suction between our collective asses and our Lazy Boys, nothing will.
If we dont stand up for ourselves, who the fuck will?
AllaN01Bear
(23,326 posts)the jerks have been trying to get rid of ss since fdr. they get rid of it . theres hell to pay in the mid terms .
calimary
(84,607 posts)How many?
Just How Many Baby Boomers Are There?
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that there are 76.4 million baby boomers.
There were actually a total of 76 million births in the United States from 1946 to 1964, the 19 years usually called the baby boom. Of the 76 million baby boomers born, nearly 11 million had died by 2012, leaving some 65.2 million survivors. However, when immigrants are included (the number of people coming into the United States from other countries, minus those moving the other way), the number grows to an estimated 76.4 million because immigrants outweighed the number of baby-boomer deaths. The flow of immigrants greatly increased after passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, just as the baby boom was ending.
https://www.prb.org/resources/just-how-many-baby-boomers-are-there/
AllaN01Bear
(23,326 posts)Random Boomer
(4,268 posts)That's the very definition of an entitlement: benefits that we have paid for and are entitled to receive. Stop feeding the false narrative that "entitlements" are somehow unearned or frivolous expenditures.
Entitlements are not the same as "entitled" people who presume too much. The distinction matters.
Beck23
(246 posts)Congress can't spend these any way they want.
Mariana
(15,196 posts)The law? They can just make a new law.
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,739 posts)One of their long term plans is to strip it away by misinforming those who aren't yet collecting.
Devious AND disastrous. Every time the market crashes we relearn why SS is so vital.
Sneederbunk
(15,392 posts)Bleacher Creature
(11,462 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(116,500 posts)The same asshole Musk who believes he deserve $56 billion a year.
Lonestarblue
(11,983 posts)We are dealing with a group of unhinged people who think that they can take whatever they want.
DownriverDem
(6,680 posts)to change Social Security, there was so much backlash that it was dropped.
markodochartaigh
(2,221 posts)to increase the retirement age, increase the payroll tax, and screw public employees with a pension with the Windfall Provision.
krkaufman
(13,759 posts)I look forward to seeing the differing coverage Re: Trumps lies Re: Social Security and other campaign promises and Bidens legitimate shift Re: Hunters pardon.
Ferryboat
(1,054 posts)If you were born totally disabled with a bleak future. Social security would pay benefits from day one till end of life.
No-one could buy or afford such insurance.
Mr.Bee
(426 posts)that has worked perfectly for 80 years, and every other industrialized country in the world copied for their own societies, until Republicans decided not to raise the rate in order to kill it!
You raise the rates and you keep Social Security solvent for years, decades, centuries!
JustAnotherGen
(33,821 posts)It was right in Project 25.
returnee
(333 posts)Quelle surprise!
kwijybo
(265 posts)I wouldn't want to be a cop in the front lines when they arm themselves and invade DC.
dlk
(12,468 posts)Its about Republicans insatiable avarice.
Abolishinist
(2,071 posts)is that IF dollars were not deducted from the average person's wages throughout their lifetime for social security, many would have spent vs. invested every one of those dimes. At the age of 65, these same folks would either be broke or have marginal savings at best.
And then, of course, those of us who have empathy toward the 'poor', who instead have saved/invested during their earning years, would be called upon to bail them out.
Figarosmom
(3,298 posts)Of every Republican rhat would go along with this.
C Moon
(12,604 posts)"Get out and vote! Just this time. You won't have to do it anymore! Four more years, you know what? It'll be fixed, it'll be fine, you won't have to vote anymore."
That's how he'll fix the housing shortage. When Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa all move in with their kids and sell their homes.
Response to JohnSJ (Original post)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
moondust
(20,516 posts)Social Security and Medicare and all that gubment stuff just interferes with the plutocrats' and wannabe plutocrats' greed and predation. Loony and Swampy will take care of it.
Karasu
(368 posts)C Moon
(12,604 posts)soandso
(1,631 posts)I don't have an account but want to read it.
alarimer
(16,644 posts)So go fuck yourself, Mike Lee.
WE PAID INTO IT for years. It is OURS. Not yours. And not Elon Musk's.
JohnSJ
(96,812 posts)Response to alarimer (Reply #66)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
GiqueCee
(1,514 posts)... an especially odious sociopath.
"... democracy isnt the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity [sic] are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.
His words. Lee's various defenders and spokespersons must have sprained some muscles and torn some ligaments trying to put a positive spin on that remark.
augyboston
(274 posts)As if this substantial loss of purchasing power isn't bad enough, now we're going to have clowns like Musk and The Jerk trying to gut or eliminate the program?!?
Bottom line is over half of America's elderly will be put into poverty without Social Security and Medicare.
Perhaps the MAGA plan is to deport the immigrants and replace them in the fields with America's seniors!!!
SayItLoud
(1,740 posts)Reduce SS for those with pensions. Why? Because it's "costing" the companies $$ that could go into the "shareholder's" (their) pockets. This will be the first step in their attack on SS.