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Who: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ
09 April 2018 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
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How Income Inequality Injures People and the Economy
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The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part V)
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The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part IV)
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The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part III)
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The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part II)
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The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part I)
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On Elitism

More Republican Lies and Lore on Social Security and Medicare

15 November 2012 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
Kimball Corson
More Republican Lies and Lore on Social Security and Medicare

Republicans argue much the time that our government is looting Social Security and Medicare and soon those funds will be insolvent because of the looting and not be able to make the medical and social security payments the government is supposed to make. Their's is the party of the arithmetically challenged and, lets face it, the stupid.

The Social Security Trust Fund is not being looted by government. The Fund is authorized by law to prudently invest the excess of receipts over payments for each year, if any. It is a fact that since 1982 the fund has had excesses ranging from $89 billion to $190 billion a year, all loaned to the government in the form of buying U.S. bonds. It is also projected that by 2020, the government will be in debt to the Fund by $3.1 trillion. This figure is a part of the national debt, but is of the inter-governmental debt in the total of about $5.2 trillion.

Only excess SS funds are so invested. Funds needed to make current payments for the year are not and may not be invested or borrowed by the government. Medicare funds are handled similarly. Medicare and Social Security are quite efficiently run.

Keeping the SS Fund and Medicare solvent on an annual basis is a separate set of issues which can be easily accomplished. So far receipts of the funds have covered payments required by law to be make. However, with the baby boomers, that will not remain the case in the future and a coordinated approach to keeping both funds solvent will be needed. Proportionally more retirees and relatively fewer workers stack the cards against the system. But it is not too serious a problem.

Solvency of the funds could be assured by 1) raising the retirement and qualifying ages, 2) raising the maximum income levels up to which present taxes apply, 3) making the taxes apply to all income, albeit perhaps at a declining or equal average or slightly progressive rate, 4) means testing, so if your are wealthy, you don't get SS payments or Medicare, 5) curtailing some benefits which have been extended excessively in regard to both Social Security and also, to a much lesser extent, Medicare (this, of course, is a real Republican favorite -- anything to ax some government and injure people), 6) other and similar means. These are not really difficult matters to deal with. Republicans just try to make them so. In short, Medicare and Social Security could be handled similarly.

Getting rid of or privatizing either program would be a huge mistake, but that is urged by Republicans. Feeding Social Security to the wolves on Wall Street is near and dear to Republicans' hearts. My prediction is that in a generation or less, there would not be enough of the Fund left for a mouse to fasten his tooth on. The fat cats on the Street would have the monies.

Privatizing Medicare would serve two Republican purposes. One, it would prevent Medicare from being easily expanded into a national single payor super efficient health care financing system and two, it would protect and assure the continued existence of the the hugely inefficient private system of health care insurers. Both of these are laudable goals in Republican eyes. They are so bad, they are awful.
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Vessel Name: Altaira
Vessel Make/Model: A Fair Weather Mariner 39 is a fast (PHRF 132), heavily ballasted (43%), high-aspect (6:1), stiff, comfortable, offshore performance cruiser by Bob Perry that goes to wind well (30 deg w/ good headway) and is also good up and down the Beaufort scale.
Hailing Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ
Crew: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
About:
Kimball Corson: I am a 75 year old solo sailor, by choice. However, I did take on a personable, but high maintenance female kitten, now a full grown cat, named KiKiPoo when she is sweet, or KatKatPo after she has just killed something like a bird or bat. [...]
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Although I was a lawyer and practiced law with good success for thirty years, creating significant new law, I never really believed in the law, the politics of law or in the over reaching self-interest of most lawyers I met. Too much exposure to Nietzsche and other good and seriously thoughtful [...]
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Who: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ