Social Security

[Muley Hunter]

Virtually every Republican candidate for president disagrees. Many of them claim Social Security is “going broke,” that it’s causing the deficit to explode, and its trust fund is full of IOUs.
They want the American people to believe Social Security is in crisis and must be cut.
They are dead wrong.
Here are the facts:

• Social Security has a $2.8 trillion surplus. It can pay every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 19 years (and more than three-quarters after that).
  
• Social Security’s assets aren’t “just paper,” as conservatives sometimes put it. Social Security invests in U.S Treasury bonds, the safest interest-bearing securities in the world. These are the same bonds wealthy investors have purchased, along with China and other foreign countries. These bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, which in our long history has never defaulted on its debt obligations.
  
• Right now a billionaire pays the same amount of money into Social Security as someone who makes $118,500 a year. That’s because there is a cap on taxable income that goes into the Social Security system.
  

 

[Kentucky Colonel]

Give those charlatans hell, Muley! I'm with ya!  :Bat:

 

[patocazador]

The trouble with those bonds is they've been paying less than 0.84% APR ... That's less than the current inflation rate.

 

[Muley Hunter]

You'd prefer to have the money invested in the stock market like the Rep's want to do? What's .84% of 2.8 trillion?

Bottom line is there's 2.8 trillion in reserve. It's not going broke like the Rep's want you to believe.

 

[Okie Hog]

For decades the hacks in congress and the white house used the social security surplus as a cash cow to fund giveaway programs and wars. Now the surplus is gone and they don't want to pay the money back. So they invented this fake doom and gloom scenario.

Yeah, the interest rates don't begin to keep up with inflation and that suits the political criminals just fine.

 

[Muley Hunter]

Exactly, and the Rep's want to shut down SS. That way they don't have to pay back the trillions they sucked out of SS. They'll come off as hero's for reducing the national debt when all they did was screw SS and everybody who's paid into it.

You couldn't pay me enough to vote for any Republican.

 

[BigAl52]

Ive learned one thing if it comes out of a politicians mouth its a lie. I have no use for any of these people  no matter what party they come from. This use to be a honor to serve the country now its become nothing more than a game to see how much money they can make and how they can screw the american tax paying public over for personal gain. Its all a joke and we keep electing them. Sure I vote and Im about to climb on the SS wagon in a couple of years but my vote anymore is a vote for the worse of two evils. Politicians suck. Al

 

[Smokin' Joe]

Amen to that BigAl52!:Red tup:

 

[Muley Hunter]

Bernie Sanders has never wavered from what he wants. He seems the most honest of all of them. None of the others in the race can dig up any dirt on him. He never took money from the rich like everybody else in the race. He wears old cheap suits, lives in a small place and even flies coach.

Well, Trump never took from a super-pac, but that's because he's one of them. In the past he contributed to politicians to get favors in return. Now he's backing himself. All of Bernie's money for the race comes from contributions from the public. As it should be.

 

[patocazador]

I vote against incumbents regardless of party however, I won't vote for a socialist.
I'm a registered democrat but have voted for very few democrats over the last several elections and I certainly didn't vote for that know-nothing anti-gunner that's in there now.

BTW both democratic candidates are self-proclaimed anti-gun politicians and both have served in the US Senate.

 

[Muley Hunter]

Maybe you can vote for Bush. Just what we need. Another Bush.

Bernie is not a socialist in the normal definition of the word. He says Democratic Socialist. Huge difference.

SS and medicare are socialist programs. All the programs he wants are programs we all want. I doubt he can get all of them passed, but at least we know what he'll be fighting for. No surprises. He hasn't changed his ideas in his whole political career. None of his ideas will hurt anybody but the very rich.

 

[Okie Hog]

i spent a career in the US Army, retiring in 1979. Never followed politics until i left the Army. One thing for sure, neither political party gives one hoot in hell about veterans. Oh, the congress criminals all talk a fine line of crap about loving veterans; then they sit on their butts getting rich on lucre from the one percenters.

Years ago the political criminals decided that military retirees should not receive free medical care. Military retirees under age 65 went onto Tri-Care with a co-pay. At age 65 we go into Tri-Care For Life and we pay for Medi-Care Part B. There is no co-pay. The sticker: Medi-Care is refusing to pay for many common tests and procedures.

The VA hospital in OK City is decrepit and none of the OK congressional delegation gives two hoots in hell.

Voted for the first time in 1960 as a Democrat. Then switched partys: i'm the first Republican in my family. Years ago i wised up and concluded that arguing politics is akin to arguing the virtue of truck stop prostitutes and changed my voter registration to Independent. i get requests for donations from both the Democrat and Republican partys. The postpaid envelopes get stuffed with big heavy washers and mailed.

 

[patocazador]

It IS criminal the way the government and the VA have treated veterans. The local VA hospitals are staffed with non-qualified doctors and physicians' assistants. The facilities spread MERSA to many of the people they are supposed to help. Veterans die while waiting months for appointments. The list is too long to type out.

Any person who is sent into combat should have guaranteed, cost-free, first class medical care for the rest of their lives. If it is OK to risk their lives in service to our country, it should be mandatory to completely pay for the medical treatment costs that ensues from that service.

The VA should be abolished as it exists now and every combat veteran should get a card that entitles him to private medical care at no cost.

 

[Muley Hunter]

That's what a lot of those running now claim they want to do. Let's see if they can get it done if elected.

 

[BigAl52]

I wonder how much time is spent by Nancy Pelosi Michelle Obama and Barack Obama while they fly there jets around taking vacations to the tune of 60 million dollars about the American people and social security. As far as I am concerned they need to scrap Air Force One.

 

[RonRC]

I know this started out about Social Security, but BigAl stirred my curiosity about presidential vacations. So, I went off looking for data. A problem is that the right and left leaning media give widely different reports. Mark Knoller is an investigative reported who has kept track of modern presidential vacations and work schedules and was a good start to finding independent estimates. 



BigAl, You are correct about the cost of Air Force One.
The biggest expense for Presidential vacations is the use of Air Force One and the support aircraft needed to haul all the equipment and ground transportation the president needs. The Congressional Research Service estimated that the cost of operating Air Force One is nearly $180,000 per hour. Ultimately, a presidential vacation can cost taxpayers an additional $1 million or considerably more than if the president had just stayed put in the White House.

About 200 people accompany a president on vacation — including White House aides, Secret Service agents, military advisers, and experts in communications and transportation so that the president can do nearly everything he could in Washington. Because these people have to be there in Washington or on vacation, a presidential vacation does not significantly increase personnel costs. Taxpayers do have to pay extra for the aides and agents travel, food and lodging, there is extra cost accrued.
Vacation Time
During his eight-year presidency, Bush took 879 days of vacation, including 77 trips to his Texas ranch. Bush holds the record for the longest modern presidential vacation for his five-week recess in 2005 in Crawford. Using the low end cost of $56,800, Media Matters calculated that each trip to Crawford cost taxpayers $259,687, and $23 million total for Bush’s ranch flights.

By August 2014, Obama had taken about 150 days off (20 trips).


Jimmy Carter took the least number of days of vacation, (79 days) but he leaves a dubious legacy.

Ronald Reagan spent 335 days at his California ranch and more days at other locations.

President John F. Kennedy spent nearly every weekend of his presidency at one of his family’s several properties.

FDR made 134 trips to Hyde Park and spent an additional six months of his presidency in Warm Springs, Ga., where he treated symptoms of his polio.
References: Presidential Travel: Policy and Costs. L. Elaine Halchin . Specialist in American National Government. 2012
http://www.factcheck.org/2010/01/president-obamas-vacation-days/
Lai, Shelly, Maj., 89th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Director. E-mail Sent to FactCheck.org. 5 Jul 2011.

 

[Kentucky Colonel]

I know this started out about Social Security, but BigAl stirred my curiosity about presidential vacations. So, I went off looking for data. A problem is that the right and left leaning media give widely different reports. Mark Knoller is an investigative reported who has kept track of modern presidential vacations and work schedules and was a good start to finding independent estimates. 



BigAl, You are correct about the cost of Air Force One.
The biggest expense for Presidential vacations is the use of Air Force One and the support aircraft needed to haul all the equipment and ground transportation the president needs. The Congressional Research Service estimated that the cost of operating Air Force One is nearly $180,000 per hour. Ultimately, a presidential vacation can cost taxpayers an additional $1 million or considerably more than if the president had just stayed put in the White House.

About 200 people accompany a president on vacation — including White House aides, Secret Service agents, military advisers, and experts in communications and transportation so that the president can do nearly everything he could in Washington. Because these people have to be there in Washington or on vacation, a presidential vacation does not significantly increase personnel costs. Taxpayers do have to pay extra for the aides and agents travel, food and lodging, there is extra cost accrued.
Vacation Time
During his eight-year presidency, Bush took 879 days of vacation, including 77 trips to his Texas ranch. Bush holds the record for the longest modern presidential vacation for his five-week recess in 2005 in Crawford. Using the low end cost of $56,800, Media Matters calculated that each trip to Crawford cost taxpayers $259,687, and $23 million total for Bush’s ranch flights.

By August 2014, Obama had taken about 150 days off (20 trips).


Jimmy Carter took the least number of days of vacation, (79 days) but he leaves a dubious legacy.

Ronald Reagan spent 335 days at his California ranch and more days at other locations.

President John F. Kennedy spent nearly every weekend of his presidency at one of his family’s several properties.

FDR made 134 trips to Hyde Park and spent an additional six months of his presidency in Warm Springs, Ga., where he treated symptoms of his polio.
References: Presidential Travel: Policy and Costs. L. Elaine Halchin . Specialist in American National Government. 2012
http://www.factcheck.org/2010/01/president-obamas-vacation-days/
Lai, Shelly, Maj., 89th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Director. E-mail Sent to FactCheck.org. 5 Jul 2011.

This is great info ... Thanks!

 

[Okie Hog]

i was an Army EOD troop for over 20 years. Military EOD troops are present everywhere the president goes. So are members of an Army unit known as WHCA. WHCA stands for White House Communications Agency. Then there is the football carrier who is usually Air Force.

i hated VIP support, especially support for the president. We worked closely with US Secret Service. Now, about half the Secret Service people are decent folks and about half are @$$holes. The presidential detail did not like LBJ, Nixon or Carter.

i asked the head of Carter's detail for an autograped photo for my colonel's chain of command wall. He said this: "If he gets in a better mood i'll ask him to sign one. If not, i'll mail a signed one to you. By the way this guy is not like he is on TV, he's just like Richard Nixon, he's your basic @$$hole". The signed photo of Carter arrived a few days after i returned to my unit.

VIP support is the reason i retired from the Army in late 1979. i would have spent nearly every day of 1980 chasing Carter and the presidential wannabees.

 

[hawgslayer1]

They, the politicians, are all crooks and will say anything to get elected. Have yet to find one that practiced what he or she preaches. It's all B/S. It's all about getting elected to a position that will make them exempt from what we have to worry about like social security, pension and puts them into a position that they don't have to worry about medical care for the rest of their pitiful lives.
People still allow Bill Clinton to speak for his wife's campaign. Can't understand that. Here's a guy who out right lied to the American public. '' I did not have sex with this women ". People still listen to him. 
Hilary is just as bad. When she appeared before a senate committee that was investigating what happened at Benghazi, which from what I understand was her job to provide security for our personal there, she put her arms in the air and said, "What difference does it make now".
That's unbelievable but the sad thing is she is running for president and people will vote for her. That's sad.
What's wrong with the people of this great country? At one time time the USA was a power house. Now no country fears us. We no longer have leaders with back bone. History will prove that we did at one time but it's a sign of the time.
Put the spineless along with the ones who don't care to back our troops and you have the same makings of the Roman Empire. Rome fell from within.

Ray 
Sorry for preaching gents but those are my opinions and I hope it didn't offend anyone. If it did, you should read the constitution. :Red tup:

 

[CoHiCntry]

I sure wouldn't want to see anyone lose their social security, especially if they planned poorly and are counting on it as their retirement plan.  That being said, I'm not sure how any freedom loving American could vote for a self proclaimed socialist???  No matter how it affects your personal finances.

A "democratic socialist" is just a nice way of saying it.  I'm amazed how many guy's in the hunting/ shooting world would actually vote for anyone on the left.

We know they are all liars and power hungry and will say anything to get elected.  I vote freedom first along with my other convictions i.e. pro life, pro second amendment, anti big government, entitlements, and gay marriage.