You Want to Talk Issues? Here's One, a BIG One....

I have heard many reasonable economists and others propose that for people 50+ the SS should stay the same. For younger people, they should be able to invest in their own retirement savings like 401Ks or other financial tools while contributing a modest amount to SS to serve the people that are left and depend on collecting. This seems reasonable to me and would phase out SS eventually, taking a huge financial burden off the country's coffers and forcing people to plan for their own retirement. I think this would be a good thing. The problem with this is the working poor that are barely getting by, never mind investing some for their retirement. I don't know how we would deal with those people. I think, and it might be a good thing, that we might see inter-generational households where the children are supporting and caring for their parents while the parents contribute with child care and anything else they can do. I wonder if that would work--it would certainly be good for the children and free up both parents to work, knowing their children are in good hands.

I think 0bama is a liar. He knows full well that Social Security is in deep trouble. He is also trying to fool the American people in believing otherwise so that he can push his socialist agenda. Social Security must be revamped. Ideally it needs to be phased out while allowing for the younger generation to finance their retirement through other more sustainable means. Bush had the right idea in that, but as we all know, he was beat up over it.

It's a shame this issue has been ignored for so many decades; if it hadn't been, maybe we wouldn't be in this position. I mean, it sure hasn't been a secret that the Baby Boomer generation exists and knowing that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that will mean millions of people retiring within a relatively short number of years, many of whom will live up to three decades or more after retiring. There is a solution but it's one all of the politicians are afraid to touch with a ten foot pole. The payroll tax should be paid on all earned income, not just the first $110,000 or whatever the cut-off is now. Another thing is SS should be means tested; for millions of seniors a $1000 check give or take a few hundred is all they have to survive on but multi-millionaires and billionaires wouldn't even miss it. I know the right disagrees here but it is a solution. There's always talk about raising the retirement age even higher and it's often said how the life-expectancy is so much higher now than it was when SS first started. That's true, BUT the ones who are living the longer lives aren't the people who work at extremely physical jobs. It's one thing for someone to work past 70 years old if they're sitting at a desk and don't have a whole lot of stress but it's another for someone working in a coal mine, on road construction or delivering mail on foot in all kinds of weather. Annie

yes, i think right now raising taxes would cause damage to the economy. it just too fragile currently.

Having people save for their own retirement will remove ALOT of spending money from the economy and force as big a drain on economic growth as taxing business would. Risking retirement on investing in companies, while better than private savings for the economy, is just too risky for the individual retiree as recent retirees have found. Private investment is only a good alternative for the economy AND citizens if the investment funds are guaranteed not to drop below actual invested amount by the Federal Government, a risky budgetary gamble unless the taxes on that investment cover the risk. Social Security needs to change and I wouldn't call the changes minor, just no one person is going to take responsibility for a major change so it needs to happen very slowly, say, one small change per Congressional session instead of one sweeping Bill. That was the same mistake Congress keeps making with the Medical System Bills: Too much lumped into one bill instead of several small changes. Temporarily, funding needs increased so the government should seek money from user based taxes that are unaffected by increasing of their taxation or result in a healthier country, like taxes on Passports, smoking, gasoline, coal, companies that outsource their workloads to overseas, bonuses given to executives in companies that have had layoffs in the previous year and companies that reduced benefits within the previous year. Couple those with an across the board pay cut in Washington and I could find the money. Vote Balthasar the Rat as write-in on all your ballots!