There They Go Again
Posted by Chris Martin at 2/1/2009 10:47 AM 
Categories: Entitlements, Social Security, Fiscal Crisis of the State
Categories: Entitlements, Social Security, Fiscal Crisis of the State
In an Op Ed Piece in last week's SF Comical Susan
Green - a highly qualified freelance writer - suggests that we can eliminate a major source of Federal waste by stopping the Social
Security Payments of "high rollers", that we "cut the benefits to those
who don't need them".
May I suggest that we already have a program that pays benefits to those who "need" them. It is called Supplemental Security Income. If you want to see where Social Security might be headed under Green's proposal, You would do well to look at that program.
What will the income level be where people need Social Security? Poverty? Two times poverty? Will the income level change when tax revenues fall through hard times or new tax cuts?
How much property will you be able to own and still qualify for Social Security? What if you are poor but some of your children are rich?
Will we make any distinction between people who worked low wage jobs all their lives, people who came into their retirement poverty honestly, and others who wasted their high income during their working lives? What forms will they have to fill out to prove this?
And where will the political support for Social Security go when high wage workers realize that they are paying taxes into a program that will pay them nothing later?
May I suggest that we already have a program that pays benefits to those who "need" them. It is called Supplemental Security Income. If you want to see where Social Security might be headed under Green's proposal, You would do well to look at that program.
What will the income level be where people need Social Security? Poverty? Two times poverty? Will the income level change when tax revenues fall through hard times or new tax cuts?
How much property will you be able to own and still qualify for Social Security? What if you are poor but some of your children are rich?
Will we make any distinction between people who worked low wage jobs all their lives, people who came into their retirement poverty honestly, and others who wasted their high income during their working lives? What forms will they have to fill out to prove this?
And where will the political support for Social Security go when high wage workers realize that they are paying taxes into a program that will pay them nothing later?
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