Nobody Younger than age 35 would stay in an optional SS program.

…I want the option to exit Social Security. There’s no reason for me to keep paying in except to pay for the stupidity of people who didn’t plan for their own retirement.

Disability? That’s such a small portion of it and for such specific cases that I can live with it, even if I bristle paying it. But retirement? That should be your problem, not mine. Welcome to the world of the Wal-Mart Greeter.

If you eliminated the Social Insurance Taxes and their related expenses, our budget deficit in 2010 would have been about $175 billion. Instead, it was $1.3 trillion. That tells me all I need to know to tell me down which rat hole my money is really going.

I don’t know what the traditional 26 week unemployment payments were, but I’d wager they’re under $300 billion. Without Social Insurance other than traditional unemployment, we’d have an $865 billion private sector stimulus and a $475 billion deficit. Even paying Obama’s $287k per job, that’s over three million jobs. At a more realistic $40k per job, that’s almost twenty two million jobs.

Woah.

Who said social insurance is stimulus?

…with a greater focus on entitlements than defense. 3:1 ratio and all that.

There are areas we can cut the DoD. In particular, some of the bases in areas that are no longer strategically important, or where we have multiple bases fulfilling the same role in near proximity. Cut programs the military doesn’t want. Cut waste where we can.

But the real 800 pound deficit gorilla is entitlements. People need to stop looking at them as entitlements and start looking at them as what they are: The communal future spent to pay for the individual stupidity of the past.

I forgot to add that the $200B debt service accounts for the remaining $200B deficit.

All of this points to one principle: STOP SPENDING!

This situation absolutely cannot be resolved by raising taxes. There isn’t enough money in the entire accumulated wealth and production capacity of the United States to fund our current rate of expenditures.

Weight of The Poor.

why Boehner & all House Republican’s don’t call a press conference and ask Obama that very thing. That would let the elderly know we’re concerned, not going to forget about them, etc. and exposes Obama for what he is. Kills 2 birds so to speak. They really should have somebody reading redstate on a regular basis because we offer so many good ideas about how to frame the narrative. How hard is it to speak to the American people and say we’re going to pass a bill that encompasses cuts, cap and BBA with measures that make sure the debt gets paid, the military gets paid, SS checks go out and whatever else is essential?

We lose way too many battles in the PR department.

The Heritage Foundation has some excellent resources to understand these issues, which are much better than I could ever draft:

http://www.heritage.org/BudgetChartBook/

http://www.savingthedream.org/

The Heritage Foundation has some excellent resources to understand these issues, which are much better than I could ever draft:

http://www.heritage.org/BudgetChartBook/

http://www.savingthedream.org/

gold, courtesy of FDR. Now they confiscate your health care and dollar value thru inflation and deficits. You will probably sneak in under the wire, extended eligibility but available at a discount at earlier age. Save like a squirrel preparing for the Winter otherwise.

we are in the same boat, so I understand where you’re coming from having paid into SS for 30+ years myself. My husband and I have prepared for retirement without counting on SS, but not everybody has. Plus we’re very concerned about what might happen to our savings if the country continues down the same path. In any event, speaking only for myself, I’m more than willing to live with a means test and raising the retirement age for the sake of my son’s future and that of our country. We are all going to have to share the pain and make sacrifices in order to eliminate the bulk of entitlements and unsustainable programs like SS. We can’t keep yelling for cuts and then refuse to accept them when they may affect us directly.

There are some good articles here at redstate as well if you just search “Social Security” in the custom search button on the top right of the page, but here’s a link to a really good one.

http://www.redstate.com/dhorowitz3/2011/06/16/time-to-opt-out-of-the-social-security-ponzi-scheme/

…that retirement is an individual responsiblity, not a communal one. If you are capable of working now, you’re capable of sacrificing that neat cell phone or that shiny new car or that bigger-than-you-need house in favor of planning for your own retirement.

That being said, for those people who have paid into social security, they’re going to have to accept the fact that they’re not going to get everything they were promised. Those promises were lies. They believed those lies and, well, caviat emptor.

That doesn’t mean we leave people to twist. Honestly, my personal preference would be to let them suffer for trusting politicians to tell the truth, but I know that’s politically not feasible. But we have to cut back on unsustainable promises. Social Security was never intended as anything more than a supplement, not your full retirement. If your plan is to retire solely on Social Security, plan on living in a tent. Or with your kids.

The good news is, if you’re 55, you still have some time. You can start paying off your debts, you can put money into 401(k)s and IRAs, and no one says you have to retire at 62/65/67/whever your Social Security retirement age is. Sure, it won’t be the most comfortable retirement if you’re not already invested, but it’s better than doing without.

But what to do about what you’ve already paid in? Well, some of it you can kiss goodbye. Heck, you’ve already sacrificed the future value of the payments you made back-when, so you’ve already taken one on the chin. The financial rate of return on Social Security retirement insurance sucks compared to, say, the S&P500 rate of return.

So let’s guarantee some portion of what you’ve paid in. Let’s say that your employer contribution still gets paid into the system, no matter what. Now, say you’re over 40 and have been paying in for at least 15 years. Maybe 50% of your payments can be guaranteed? We’d have to do a lot more math than I want to bother with right now. We then take that money and let you invest it as you wish, whether that’s keeping it in Social Security, putting into the Stock Market, municipal bonds or plain-old savings, but it has to go into retirement, not your pocket. If you’re over, I don’t know, 60? You can stay in social security as is, but you’ll have to take a sizable cut in promised benefits. And if you’re under 40, we don’t guarantee much of anything, but you’ve got about 25 years to plan for your own retirement using your individual contribution, plus anything else you want to throw at it.

That’s an idea I’ve been running through my head for quite awhile. We have to step back from Social Security as it exists today. We have to force people to take responsibility for themselves and stop being dependent upon government. We have to remind people that “non-discretionary” refers to the idea that Congress doesn’t have to approve it every year and does not indicate that it’s “mandatory” spending.

from the moment the words came out of Obama’s mouth, my brothers and I have already put our heads together and come up with a plan that will make sure my aging father has the things he needs. We had to be “persuasive”, meaning that we had to tell him not to act like stubborn mule about this one. But after all he’s done for us over the years, it is honor and privilege to have this opportunity. It truly is! Usually he’s far too independent to even consider our helping him with anything.

But another event has happened today as well. The church that my father attends has already been on the phone, contacting their senior citizens, finding out who might be totally dependent on SS and who isn’t, who has other options and who doesn’t, etc. And the church is coming up with some plans of their own to step into the gap in what ways they can, if it comes right down to. Talk about efficient, RMJ!

I was wondering if any other churches are making plans on this point. It won’t help everyone, but it definitely will make a difference.

Great answers from all!..my take away on this issue from the answers given is that retirement income is a personal/family responsibilty and NOT a governmental one. Once again, the consevative view “Personal Responsibility” takes center stage and one of the main reasons for my conversion.

I personally have some diversification in my retirement plans as others seem to have also and I certainly do not count SS in any large measure. I am willing to make sacrifices in order to preserve a future for my kids. But I can see for society as a whole, once a person starts to suckle the government teat it is going to be hard to get them off it.