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Baby Boomers: Repent Partisan Politics Or Bend Over for Uncle Sam
The Amish exempted themselves from Social Security as a First Amendment Right in 1965.
http://www.amishnews.com/amisharticles/amishss.htm
Many State Government Employees like CALPERS are exempt from paying Social Security Trust taxes.
As of 2009, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System retirement plan paid up to $195,000 in annual retirement benefits to government workers, while Social Security recipients get a maximum of $2346 a month, or $28,152 a year, which is taxable. There was no COLA for 2010.
http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/ssa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5
The average Social Security Retirement benefit is about $1000 a month, or $12,530 a year, one-third the average working income.
http://www.ncpssm.org/news/archive/vp_cutting_ss_benefits/
Which would most people rather have, $28,152 a year income from Social Security or a $195,000 income from an alternative retirement plan?
Courts decided Medicare and Social Security payments are not benefits or contractual rights that can be given to an heir.
Reid, Pelosi and Obama and their predecessors so far refused to fix Social Security. Congress repelled President W Bush attempts in 2005 to privatize social security. Congress in 2009 proposed a backdoor Healthcare tax scheme with Medicare spending cuts that led to Tea Parties and three significant electoral losses of Democrat strangleholds in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Virginia.
The third rail of politics would appear to be powerful. However, the internet has enabled a better-informed electorate facing retirement.
Actually and actuarially, Medicare is in far worse shape than Social Security, upside down in a few years.
The CNBC article did not dare go there.
February 9th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
USA Today just quoted Stephen Goss, chief actuary for the Social Security Administration:
“Things are a little bit worse than had been expected,” he said, “Clearly, we’re going to be negative for a year or two.”
Seems declining mandatory FICA payroll taxes, earlier retirements and 10% disability brought the day of reckoning 7 years earlier than expected.
Hint: This is not inflationary, but default-driven deflation…
Aloha Regards*Rich