Warning to pensioners

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Social Security Benefits Are Growing Too Fast​


Here’s an unpopular opinion: Social Security benefits are growing too fast. And this excessive benefit growth is one of the key reasons the program is unsustainable.

We’ve all heard that entitlement programs are suffering under the weight of a demographic shift. The American population is aging and living longer, as fertility has declined. Fewer new workers as the share of the senior population increases means fewer taxpayers available to cover the cost of old‐age benefits.

This is true. And it’s also true that we could solve a lot of the entitlement spending problem, without cutting a single penny from current benefits, by slowing the growth in benefits.

 
If benefits aren't keeping pace with inflation, then the benefits are being cut in real if not nominal terms. Fixed incomes are inflation sensitive.
 
From the link:

Back in my school days, a “C” grade was a certification of rank mediocrity. That’s the right way to think about a recent scorecard on which the U.S. retirement system scored an inexcusably deficient C+.

That grade placed the U.S. behind Netherlands, Iceland and Israel (all A’s); and Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland (all solid B’s or B+). If you’re looking for bragging rights, the U.S. came in about even with France.

The scores come to us from the business consulting firm Mercer, which ranked 47 national pension systems for its Global Pension Index on standards such as adequacy, sustainability (including the reliability of funding) and integrity (such as the regulation of private pension providers).

www.latimes.com

Column: America's retirement system is mediocre. The new House speaker wants to make it downright awful

America's retirement system is already among the worst in the developed world. If new House Speaker Mike Johnson were to get his way, it would be far worse.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com
 

Federal auto-IRA would crowd out private-sector plans, critics say​

October 23, 2023

A federal automatic retirement savings program would undermine retirement plans offered by businesses to their employees, said critics of new federal legislation.

Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) last week introduced the Retirement Savings for America Act, which would establish portable, tax-advantaged retirement accounts sponsored by the federal government. Low- and middle-income workers who use the accounts would be eligible for a contribution match from the government that would phase out at the median income level.

More:

www.investmentnews.com

Federal auto-IRA would crowd out private-sector plans, critics say

A proposal for a federal auto-IRA has met with criticism that it would undermine businesses' provision of retirement plans.
www.investmentnews.com www.investmentnews.com
 
Who is going to "manage" these accounts?
If the government itself is going to be the manager, how long before they steer people's money into US bonds?
 
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(anti)Social (in)Security was to be managed to protect people's retirement, too.

What happened? Court rulings - ruling the way the government wanted them to rule, that holding the money in individual accounts was unlawful. So it was co-mingled. To where, your FICA payments, are poured into the vacuum of debt that is the Federal Treasury.

Same damn thing will happen here. If you think the Wall Street suits fark up the Muppets' IRA accounts...wait until people like the Squad start doing it. People like Ma Yellin. People who find a home in the bureaucracy, being unable to manage a Subway in the real economy.
 
Part B costs, deductibles and IRMAA surcharges will increase about 6% next year.
By David Enna, Tipswatch.com

Less than a month ago, U.S. retirees collecting Social Security learned their benefits will be increasing 3.2% beginning in January. That was the good news. The bad news is that costs for Medicare copayments and deductibles will be rising at a higher rate, about 6%.

More:

Medicare costs for 2024 are rising faster than U.S. inflation​

 
We're Useless Eaters, by the consensus of Elites and Davos Man.

This is what comes of it; what comes of depending on GUBBERMINT for our daily bread.

First Gubbermint offers the carrot. Then Gubbermint, hating competition, co-opts other means of coping with old age. Pension plans are quietly discouraged; and then deliberate inflation (such as the Fed's "target") set in motion to make saving money unprofitable, and then impossible.

Finally, with all alternatives cut off, Gubbermint chokes off the lifeline. And the Useless Eaters endure a slow, nasty death. Aided, of course, by the former physicians, now death-technicians, with their Pharma poison Jabs.
 

Is Eliminating Social Security for the Wealthy a Viable Option? 2 Presidential Hopefuls Think So — Here’s Why​


The future of Social Security — and finding a way to address the program’s potential shortcomings — has been a point of contention among politicians for quite some time. And now, Republican presidential candidates offer divergent opinions and solutions as to how to keep Social Security funded, with some proposing to eliminate benefits for the wealthy altogether.

More:

 
Next, they redefine "wealthy."

Like, having some part of last month's check in your bank account.

And maybe they'll conflate "wealth" with "privilege." As in "WHITE MALE privilege."

More on the downward circling of the bowl...
 
Casey Jones said:
Next, they redefine "wealthy."

Like, having some part of last month's check in your bank account.

And maybe they'll conflate "wealth" with "privilege." As in "WHITE MALE privilege."

More on the downward circling of the bowl...
Click to expand...
From a historical standpoint inflation has been doing a pretty good job of redefining wealthy for our financial system
 
Nov 9th.........

From the link:

New bipartisan legislation introduced on Thursday would create a bicameral fiscal commission to tackle the nation’s $33 trillion dollar debt—potentially “fast-tracking” cuts to Social Security along the way, opponents say.

The Fiscal Stability Act, introduced by U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Mitt Romney (R-UT), and co-sponsored by Sens. Kyrsten Simena (I-AZ), Todd Young (R-IN), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Mark Warner (D-VA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Thom Tillis (R-NC), aims to “stabilize and decrease” national debt.

 

Republican Social Security plans don’t add up​

BRETT ARENDS'S ROI
There’s good news and bad news about Social Security.

The good news? At last week’s Republican presidential debate, candidates Nikki Haley and Chris Christie broke from the pack and offered actual ideas for fixing the program’s budget crisis without raising any taxes.

The bad news? Their numbers don’t stack up.

More:

 

Socially Insecure​

If you get beyond the political rhetoric [and assembled a group to solve Social Security] it would take them 15 minutes. It would take them 15 minutes only because 10 minutes was used for pleasantries.

—Alan Greenspan, Speech to the Commercial Finance Association on October 26, 2006

The federal government starts a new fiscal year every October 1. In a rational world, Congress would fulfill its responsibilities by passing bills before that date to authorize spending in the various agencies and programs. No one would be fully satisfied, but they would keep trying to push policy in their desired direction while recognizing life must go on.

We used to live in that world. Now it’s gone, replaced by gridlock and a series of short-term bills that only delay the hard choices. And voters seem okay with this, since they keep reelecting the politicians who produce it. (“Our congressman/congresswoman is not the problem. It's all those other guys!”)

Read the rest:

goldseek.com

Socially Insecure

It's estimated the Social Security trust fund will be fully depleted in 2033, leaving the system fully dependent on current tax revenue. No one has any idea how that will go.
goldseek.com goldseek.com
 
Our Political Elites keep on getting stupider with each new generation.

Now, instead of convoluted, reckless budgets...they can't even PASS an open budget or a clean spending bill without thousands of pages of hidden evil on it.

We've devolved into Rome as it was collapsing - with our Congress becoming the Roman Senate, totally oblivious to and insulated from the chaos of Caligula's court, or of Biden's Deep State.
 
Term limits would not solve every problem, but they sure would go a long way in solving many.

The problem is that one route dictates that Congress themselves have to initiate the process. Nobody in that position is going to vote themselves out of that position.

We need to go the other route, and that is the state initiative, where two-thirds of state legislatures can call for a constitutional convention to propose an amendment. Then, once it is proposed, it must be ratified by three-fourths of the states.

I'd definitely like to see term limits imposed, but I worry about what else would be put on the agenda of a constitutional convention, should one be voted for.
 
JayDubya said:
Term limits would not solve every problem, but they sure would go a long way in solving many.

The problem is that one route dictates that Congress themselves have to initiate the process. Nobody in that position is going to vote themselves out of that position.

We need to go the other route, and that is the state initiative, where two-thirds of state legislatures can call for a constitutional convention to propose an amendment. Then, once it is proposed, it must be ratified by three-fourths of the states.

I'd definitely like to see term limits imposed, but I worry about what else would be put on the agenda of a constitutional convention, should one be voted for.
Click to expand...
Disagree.

Article V lays out the process. First, a convention of State Delegates. Not party-animals coming FROM States, but persons CREDENTIALED by the State Legislatures. Documents. Mission given, understood and accepted.

And with an understanding that misbehavior can lead to recall.

SECOND, what work they do...must be VETTED. Not once, but by EACH State legislature. And two-thirds have to accept and vote to ratify.

That screens out the kook ideas.

And if it does not? That shows where we are at. If we're where two-thirds of the States support totalitarianism, do you think legal folderol will stop them from imposing it? Tyrants and dictators are contemptuous of laws made to limit their powers.

Opponents of this process...friends of the Status Quo...put out these sham arguments to prevent any corrective action. Because they LOVE Woke. They LOVE "Changing The World" - and punishing those Deplorables who think they're free. They love the Senioriage off the money-printing tap. They love the Reverse Wealth pump, bleeding the average person dry to their benefit.

So they play to the ignorance most people have of the Constitution, and of where positive change will probably take us.
 
searcher said:
Part B costs, deductibles and IRMAA surcharges will increase about 6% next year.
By David Enna, Tipswatch.com

Less than a month ago, U.S. retirees collecting Social Security learned their benefits will be increasing 3.2% beginning in January. That was the good news. The bad news is that costs for Medicare copayments and deductibles will be rising at a higher rate, about 6%.

More:

Medicare costs for 2024 are rising faster than U.S. inflation​

Click to expand...

This is along the same lines:

‘It was stunning': Bipartisan anger aimed at Medicare Advantage care denials​

Enrollment in Medicare’s private-sector alternative is surging — and so are the complaints to Congress.

More than 30 million older Americans are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, wooed by lower premiums and more benefits than traditional Medicare offers.

But a bipartisan group of lawmakers is increasingly concerned that insurance companies are preying on seniors, and, in some cases, denying care that would otherwise be approved by traditional Medicare.

“It was stunning how many times senators on both sides of the aisle kept linking constituent problems with denying authorizations for care,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in an interview, referring to a bevy of complaints from colleagues during a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing.

More:

www.politico.com

'It was stunning': Bipartisan anger aimed at Medicare Advantage care denials

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is increasingly concerned that insurance companies are preying on seniors.
www.politico.com www.politico.com
 
^^^^^^
For those who don't know it, if you're retired and on social security you are automatically enrolled in medicare when you turn 65. Seniors pay for medicare. It's deducted from your social security.

After that you can opt for a medicare advantage plan. It can be confusing looking through all the different plans available.

All of this bullshit could be avoided if there was a single payer for medical costs. Our gov has enough doe ray me to give gazillions away to foreign powers, host invaders and treat themselves like kings. Time to take care of seniors. Betcha they won't.
 
The one who pays the piper, calls the tunes.

Do you WANT a world where you are ASSIGNED a physician - who may be an AA hire, or other quota type, or even just politically connected, and stump-stupid?

Do you WANT NO CHOICE in medical treatments? We had a taste of that with the Jab Follies. I had to search far and wide for a physician who found a way not to play. Do you want that option taken away? Join Israel and Italy in 98-percent poisoning rate?

WHEN has monopoly government EVER provided a service even APPROACHING competitive or reasonable price. Have you noticed that most cities now contract out trash pickup? Because private companies do it for a third the cost.

American railroads found they couldn't compete on price or service with the growing preference of Americans for personal-auto or aircraft travel. This when a train ticket from NY to Chicago cost $28, and a jet ticket would cost about $300.

So, government took over passenger trains. When the cars given by the railway companies finally wore out - they didn't match in profile or service or even utility hookup, but they just got lumped together - but when they wore out, Amtrak settled on two very utilitarian coach designs. One double-deck for the West, and one tubular modern-looking, for the East.

Neither were even remotely comfortable. Observation lounges and dome cars, as well as clean windows in any cars, all disappeared. And now it's more expensive to travel by government's Amtrak than by commercial aircraft.

Jimmy Carter's Synthetic Fuels Corporation burn through 2.5 billion dollars...and with $30 billion authorized. Which was why Reagan was so quick to shut it down - before they just started ordering crap at random and throwing it out or stealing it.

NO we do NOT need government healthcare. Any person using the VA knows that. I'm eligible for the VA and I will NOT get in line and wait to die, waiting for availability of whatever it is I need. When I was in the VA system, during Trump's years (when it ran as good as it ever had in modern times) I STILL had no choice over physicians or medicines.

I'm diabetic. Metformin does me fine. But I couldn't GET Metformin from the VA - because they want to buy expensive PATENTED medicines. I had a new diabetic medicine that didn't work as well and had liver problems as a side effect.

Just, no. When we go to "single-payer" that will be when millions of us, myself included, get NO healthcare. I'll have to go to a pusher for Metformin. Back-alley secret physicians' visits.
 

The new plan to create a stock market portfolio for every child in America that’s caught Microsoft, Uber and Dell’s attention​

Government-funded investment accounts for children could be on the horizon, and if tech investor Brad Gerstner has his way, corporate America will match the funds. The effort, which is still in the early stages, could prove highly beneficial for companies and their employees.

Gerstner been working with lawmakers to promote a legislative program known as Invest America that would create an investing account seeded with $1,000 for each child that’s born in the U.S., but it’s still too early in the process to publicly name supporters. He’s aiming, however, to have legislation passed before the next presidential election. At the same time, he’s working with corporate America to encourage businesses to offer matching funds to help employees further their savings.

“The vision is simple —that corporations would include an Invest America match of $1,000 into the Invest America account of children of their employees,” Gerstner, founder and chief executive of Altimeter Capital, said in an email. “We have talked with companies ranging from Zillow to Dell to Uber and, subject to details, the response has been overwhelmingly positive,” he said.

More:

 
So - FER THE CHILLUN - we're gonna have government purchase huge blocks, probably eventual total ownership, of stock.

Since the chillunz won't be voting their shares - nor their parents, probably - that means GOVERNMENT EFFECTIVELY OWNS THE INDUSTRIES.

Socialism. State ownership of the means to produce.

Melded with fascism. Government CONTROL of the means to produce, disregarding owners' rights.

This is the worst of both, with inherent dishonesty thrown in. And just for the helluvit, it raises questions of WHO CONTROLS GOVERNMENT, which has now become a stooge for various factions of oligarchs.

Will it be the Davos Supper Club? Or the Gates of Hell Foundation? Or Soros, Incorporated?
 
From LA Times

Column: An exhaustive debunking of the dumbest myths about Social Security​


Myths and canards about Social Security and its supposed fiscal troubles have steadily proliferated over the years. But it’s rare to find them all concentrated in one place as they were in a recent article on the online news site Slate.

Slate paired Eric Boehm, a writer for the conservative magazine Reason, with a writer named Celeste Headlee for a dialogue titled “Social Security Doesn’t Make Sense Anymore.” The roughly 2,000-word piece contained so many misconceptions, inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and flat-out lies about the program that I almost gave up counting. That said, it’s perhaps worthwhile to have a one-stop shop for all these sophistries, if only for the purpose of debunking them en masse.

More:

www.latimes.com

Column: An exhaustive debunking of the dumbest myths about Social Security

The worst enemies of Social Security are would-be journalists who don't do their homework before writing about it, and consequently get everything wrong.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com
 

Hospitals across the country are dumping Medicare Advantage plans and canceling their contracts with insurers​


Something strange happened on the way to health insurance nirvana. Hospitals are dumping some Medicare Advantage plans. Such a move would have been unthinkable a year ago when Advantage plans were the high flyers of the insurance business raking in money by signing up new recruits, a substantial number of them with little or no understanding of the trade-offs involved in what they were buying.

Enticed by incessant TV ads blaring every night with those fictional characters Martha and Karen and that old shill Joe Namath pushing plans, especially those with zero premiums, more converts have signed up for potentially less health care coverage and more out-of-pocket expense when illness strikes. In return, they are told they may have no monthly premium and receive a grab bag of goodies like grocery cards and a handful of toiletries. Those goodies may be less attractive, however, when that health plan makes you wait weeks for a diagnostic test to see if you have cancer or will only pay a small portion of the bill if you do.

More:

wendellpotter.substack.com

Hospitals across the country are dumping Medicare Advantage plans and canceling their contracts with insurers

Something strange happened on the way to health insurance nirvana. Hospitals are dumping some Medicare Advantage plans. Such a move would have been unthinkable a year ago when Advantage plans were the high flyers of the insurance business raking in money by signing up new recruits, a substantial...
wendellpotter.substack.com wendellpotter.substack.com
 

IRS reminds those aged 73 and older to make required withdrawals from IRAs and retirement plans by Dec. 31; notes changes in the law for 2023​


IRS reminds those aged 73 and older to make required withdrawals from IRAs and retirement plans by Dec. 31; notes changes in the law for 2023 | Internal Revenue Service

IR-2023-246, Dec. 20, 2023 — The Internal Revenue Service today reminded people born before 1951 of the year-end deadlines to take required minimum distributions (RMDs) from funds held in individual retirement arrangements (IRAs) and other retirement plans, and noted new requirements under the...
www.irs.gov www.irs.gov
 

7 Social Security Changes That Take Effect Today​

For more than eight decades, Social Security has been providing a financial foundation for those who need it most. An estimated 21.7 million people, including close to 15.4 million adults aged 65 and over, are pulled out of poverty by America's top retirement program each year.

What's particularly interesting about Social Security is that it's constantly evolving, with a number of significant changes announced annually. As we usher in the new year, here are seven Social Security changes that take effect today.

1. Social Security checks are getting beefier​

The flagship change the program's 67 million beneficiaries are most looking forward to is the 2024 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).

COLA is the mechanism that allows Social Security to account for inflation -- i.e., the rising price for goods and services. If the price for a basket of goods and services regularly purchased by retirees increases, benefits should ideally rise by a commensurate amount to ensure no loss of purchasing power.

More:

 
^^^^^^
www.bloomberg.com

Calstrs Seeks to Borrow More Than $30 Billion to Manage Cash

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the country’s second-largest pension fund, may borrow more than $30 billion to help it maintain liquidity without having to sell assets at fire-sale prices, according to a new policy its investment committee will consider this month.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com
 
Casey Jones said:
Our Political Elites keep on getting stupider with each new generation.

Now, instead of convoluted, reckless budgets...they can't even PASS an open budget or a clean spending bill without thousands of pages of hidden evil on it.

We've devolved into Rome as it was collapsing - with our Congress becoming the Roman Senate, totally oblivious to and insulated from the chaos of Caligula's court, or of Biden's Deep State.
Click to expand...


Perfect analogy. We are witnessing the collapse of Rome in real time.
 
Newsweek

Social Security Proposal Could Boost Income for Thousands​

Republican Governor Jim Justice has proposed a complete axing of Social Security taxes in West Virginia.

Justice said in his final State of the State Address on Wednesday, January 10 that, after a gradual whittling down of tax rates on state-funded income, all taxes that can be applied to Social Security should be wiped out entirely. Newsweek contacted Governor Jim Justice's office for comment on Tuesday via email.

Making a further announcement on X, formerly Twitter, Justice posted: "We've cut taxes 23 times since I took office in 2017, and this year I proposed three additional tax cuts in my budget: eliminating the tax on social security, a childcare tax credit, and an expansion to the Homestead exemption."

More:

 
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