Hilarious. There's so much wrong with your statement it's hard to know where to start. "Employers and employees" -- yes, and you know how these groups fund SS? Taxes, that's how. You seem to be saying that taxes that people pay are somehow different than the money the govt uses in federal spending. They're not different, although the govt does a lot deficit spending (obviously). Moreover, SS recipients are getting way more out of the system than what they put in, mostly because they are living longer than projected. Where's that money coming from? Taxes and/or deficit spending. SS is being abused for all kinds of BS unrelated to retirement security -- are you aware of SS Title 4d? Click this link and see all the ways that SS is being used to fund all kinds of BS social programs, unrelated to retirement security. https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title04/0400.htm In short, there's a lot of federal spending going on -- whether under the umbrella of SS or other programs -- that most people don't know about. I could go on about Medicare in a similar vein. Lastly, if your premise is correct, then why do we have deficits at all?
You think Biden has a chance over Warren at implementing change because... the filibuster is a huge issue but Biden would never get rid of it or work around it.
What I was referring , the entire military manufacturing industry. Where do the builders go ? The labor demands of industry can not afford to pay Americans when asia is where the cheap wages are, so it’s a good thing population growth is stabilizing in the developed world with greater automation incoming.
Can the pharma bubble burst if people get healthier? Smoking Is down, healthy food interest keeps increasing which plays a big role in crisis. They are the ones you would want to take away from.
All taxes are not the same. Federal income taxes go to the federal coffers and are used for federal programs. SS taxes from employers and employees do NOT go the general Federal coffers. They go specifically and only to the federal Social Security fund for the express purpose of post-retirement monies for the US citizens who contributed to them. Yes, as you say, the federal government wrongly pulls money from the SS fund to spend elsewhere, in violation of the intent and framework for Social Security. This is horrifically wrong and MUST be rectified. SS taxes ARE different. Social Security was built to be a pay-it-forward program. That is its design. Your idea seems to invision SS as a gathering of IRAs or 401ks. That's not its structure. Wow. Really? We have deficits because the federal government spends more than it takes in. We spend hundreds of billions on vehicles, vessels, and programs the military doesn't want, but defense contractors pay elected officials to procure. We spend trillions of dollars mired in wars that should have been nothing more than a surgical excision of bin Laden and maybe Taliban leadership. We spend too much money on individual elected officials' pet projects like a bridge that goes nowhere in Alaska in order to win that representative's/senator's vote on other legislation. We have far, far too much waste built into budgets. We fail to invest wisely in programs that will more than pay for themselves in the long run. (Example here is spending strategically in Central America to enable improved standards of living so refugees don't feel the only way they can survive is to immigrate to the Land of Plenty.) And perhaps the biggest item here is to freaking return tax rates on the margin to the levels of the Eisenhower era. Bill Clinton produced a balanced budget and had the nation on course to significant surpluses. It can be done.
It's going to be hard to get rid of it when you need 50 votes plus the VP to do so and several democratic senators like Manchin, Coons, Booker, Tim Kaines, etc are strongly against getting rid of it. If the democrats control the white house, house, and senate no way a single Republican votes to get rid of the filibuster. I also think both parties continuing to change the rules of the game to jam their agenda down the country's throat is a dangerous situation. Both sides are guilty of it and it is not helping.
If each and every agency in every federal department cut spending by 10% each year for the next 20 years, the federal deficit would be eliminated or virtually eliminated.
Cut the military spending incrementally to start. Raise taxes on the rich, stop off shore tax havens increase penalties, and stop corporate tax breaks. DD
Hey, that's politics! Some of us get older and wiser, but most of us just want to pick a side and not think. The media rightfully goes after the far right and shuts them down, but how many people show up to white supremacist rallies? 10, 15? Whereas the far left SELLS, is glorified, have no ability to engage in rational discussion, continue to be promoted ... which backfires. That's what Trump took advantage of and you can tell, people still don't get it. He's going to get re-elected in 2020 because of it.
