Let’s get to fixing some shiat
I think people my age have always known we couldn’t rely on social security to be there for us. We’ve heard our parents telling us to put away whatever we can, “contribute to your 401k, and pay off those credit cardsâ€. The unspoken message was “you are going to be solely responsible for funding your retirement, so get started now”. I think everybody with a pulse knows social security is dying and it doesn’t take a math degree to understand that we are not going to be able to pay for the baby-boomer’s retirement – sorry dad 
. There are just too damn many of you. But those in power have always avoided taking on social security, and indirectly, old ladies. Because the idea of losing something that rightly belongs to you scares the hell out of those nearing retirement. So we just continued on acting as if nothing was wrong. “There’s nothing to see here folks just keep moving.â€
Well I for one am glad somebody finally has the kahunas to take on social security. Maybe privatizing it isn’t the right answer – after all wasn’t social security created after everybody lost everything in the stock market crash on 1929? But at least we’re talking about fixing it and that in and of itself is a start.
Thirteen years from now, in 2018, Social Security will be paying out more than it takes in. And every year afterward will bring a new shortfall, bigger than the year before. For example, in the year 2027, the government will somehow have to come up with an extra $200 billion to keep the system afloat. And by 2033, the annual shortfall would be more than $300 billion. Transcript of State of the Union Address
So we need to come up with $200 billion to keep social security going to twenty more years. Anybody know where we can find $200 billion?
Oh, oh I know pick me! Iraq where in two years we’ve invested around $250 billion in our tax dollars to “fix” it and we’re getting ready to invest another $80 billion. I hope that when we’re done there its “fixed” and “fixed” good.
So ok we could have funded social security for another 20 years with the money we’ve already spent in Iraq, but some feel we had to go into Iraq. Iraq (and our role in “fixing†it) is a hot button issue with just about everybody so I’ll let that pass and we can continue to agree to disagree about the war. But where else are we going to find $200 billion to fund social security for twenty years?
Oh, oh I know pick me again! What about the $1.9 trillion dollars (over ten years) we’ve received in tax cuts?
With the approval of the legislation, virtually all of Bush’s first-term tax agenda — four tax measures worth nearly $1.9 trillion over 10 years — would survive a potential second Bush term, unless Washington elects to change the tax code again. The total is $300 billion more in tax relief than Bush envisioned with his first tax-cut proposal in 2001. Congress Votes to Extend Tax Cuts
Everybody likes tax cuts – hell I was tickled to get my $100 check from the government too. But now that we’re talking about social security needing $200 billion in funding to survive for twenty more years I’m thinking a $75 check would have been fine. Bush has pushed a major tax cut through congress in each of the last four years. The last cut was worth $146 billion.
So which is it, does the government have too much money or not enough? I wish Bush could make up his mind because he’s really starting to sound indecisive and, dare I say, I little bit “flip floppy”.
On a related note, one day when I grow up I think I’d like to be a politician too. I think it’d be cool to have a constituency with the attention span of four year old child that would believe whatever I told them no matter how much I contradicted myself or how much money I took from them. I bet that’d be fun.
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