There seems to be many opportunities cropping up on this first day of a new administration for resistance to draconian change they intend for our democracy in the upcoming years. I am particularly happy to see Christians in this mode. No, not all Christians are among the 81% of Evangelicals who pushed the current administration in office.  In reality they are a small percentage of that … Continue reading People of Faith For Resistance..
Here is a little snippet I ran across on my Facebook page about Social Security. Â Are you feeling the Bern now?? By next Friday, I’m sure you will… If only…. Continue reading From the Bern…
Only 20 percent of Americans believe there will be enough money left when it’s time for them to retire. To fix the problem, some people believe Social Security should allow means testing, where benefits are based on a person’s income. Others think the tax should be raised, the retirement age should be raised or the benefits should be cut down. Though there’s disagreement over how, … Continue reading Fear # 4 – Social Security Will Disappear
Aug. 14, 1935: President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, which guaranteed an income for the unemployed and retirees. Social Security was initially created to combat unemployment, but now functions as a safety net for retirees and the disabled. It has remained relatively unchanged for 75 years. Social Security is funded mostly through payroll taxes called Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax FICA.When FDR launched … Continue reading The birth of Social Security..
Consider this headline from a recent survey of retirees: “Many Regret Decision to Take Social Security Early.” Sounds ominous, right? Well, the problem is that the title isn’t entirely supported by the survey’s actual results, which found that only 38% of respondents “say they wish they would have waited” longer before taking benefits. According to this, in other words, somewhere along the lines of 62% … Continue reading Why You Shouldn’t Regret Taking Benefits at 62
The History Of… Social Security Continue reading Owe It Again…
I have been kind of watching the preliminaries for this latest “super committee” forming in Washington to come to some sort of budget deal and I am not impressed. On the one hand my Republican friends often scream that Medicare doesn’t pay enough for the services rendered. That doctors are dropping out of the system due to not making enough money. And then comes the … Continue reading The Irony Of It All…
I must admit that I spent over an hour yesterday watching the president’s news conference. Â Boy, does that guy like to talk. But being a former college professor that shouldn’t be surprising. I will admit that I bought into much of his logic about holding our nation hostage for political gain. Are my Republican friends actually considering that option?? But the thing that spurred this … Continue reading The Tea Party Pledge….
Every month, 14 million people now get a disability check from the government. The federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled former workers than it spends on food stamps and welfare combined. […] [And] story of these programs — who goes on them, and why, and what happens after that — is, to a large extent, the story of … Continue reading Disability: the ‘de facto welfare program’
Source:Â Mr. 3.75 Percent – By Daniel Altman | Foreign Policy. One political leader who likes to plan for the really long term is Paul Ryan, the Republican nominee for U.S. vice president. By 2050, Ryan’s budget plan would reduce federal spending outside health-care programs and Social Security to 3.75 percent of GDP, down from 12.5 percent last year, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. … Continue reading Mr. 3.75 Percent
Here is another poll that shows when it comes to making cuts in Medicare or Social Security a big percentage of people think we should cut our bloated defense spending instead. Â If we could somehow manage to get our war machine budgets in line with the rest of the world, yes I mean the other 95% of the world, then most of our budget and … Continue reading Military Spending Cuts…….
Elections are a good deal like marriages, there’s no accounting for anyone’s taste. – May 10, 1925   Will Rogers You did it again Will. You perfectly described an election eighty-seven years in the future. There is just no accounting for the taste of the people who will be voting Republican this year.  But then again we will have to wait to see just how many … Continue reading Taste…..
It was 1965 when Medicare was enacted. I was just entering college so I still have some vivid memories of what went on around it. Â I remember the conservatives in congress were saying such things as: We’ve got to repeal this law, it is bad for the country. Its Socialism. It takes away choice. It will bankrupt the country And the most typical comment that … Continue reading Get Rid of It!!!
Source:Â Get personalized help to max out Social Security. Social Security Solutions’ optimization plan calls for my wife to file for her own benefits at age 67 but immediately suspend her payments — a perfectly legal strategy known as a file-and-suspend. We start getting some Social Security benefits immediately when I apply (at age 66) to receive a spousal benefit based on her earnings record, half … Continue reading Gaming The System……
Is the Republican Party insuring its own demise by it continuing to focus on a narrower and narrower core group. Â I want to believe this is the case as the alternative is that we as a country are now dominated by exclusion. Â Being against things, particularly different groups of people, is what has been driving the Republican primaries lately. It has pushed their final candidate … Continue reading Is the Republican Party Insuring Its Own Demise??
Source:Â https://news.fidelity.com/news/article.jhtml?guid=/FidelityNewsPage/pages/secrets-of-social-security-2&topic=living-in-retirement On the other hand, some people advocate drawing Social Security benefits at the first opportunity. Doug Carey, who founded the financial planning software firm WealthTrace, says Social Security doesn’t see itself as an odds maker, but it does require you to bet on your longevity. He offers this chart as proof. It graphs the break-even point for a person who earned the inflation-adjusted equivalent … Continue reading Betting against death
Source:Â Obama Strikes Populist Chord With Speech in Heartland – NYTimes.com. The most recent proposal by Senate Democrats calls for reducing the share of Social Security payroll tax paid by employees to 3.1 percent from the already reduced level of 4.2 percent. If Congress takes no action, the tax is to revert to 6.2 percent next month. The cut, under the proposal, would be offset by … Continue reading Taking Money Out of Social Security
Source article: Â Happy? You May live 35% Longer, Tracking Study Suggests | digtriad.com. Here is an interesting article about happiness. It seems if you are generally happy in life you live longer. We do know that happiness is associated with an extended life span,” she says. If we can get people to be happier, would that extend the lifespan? We don’t know that yet. Future … Continue reading You Live Longer If You Are Happy….
I worked over forty years of my life. During that time I paid social security taxes on almost all my income. Of course I realized that much of those taxes were used to pay my father and grandfather’s social security income and medical expenses. That was fine; that was the way it was supposed to be. After all there is a social contract in our … Continue reading Are Commitments to Social Contracts Dead??
Dear Mr. President I know you are pretty busy creating your State of the Union address for next Tuesday so I thought you could use some free advice from someone outside of the beltway. No, I don’t have an MBA degree from Harvard or other Ivy league college although I did manage to graduate from Purdue University about more than forty years ago but that … Continue reading Do you need a little help President Obama??
RJ's Corner 