McCarthy says it out loud - cut SS and Medicare

You’re right that it’s not a perfect solution. The problem is that once that government makes a recommendation or promise, people change their behavior based on it. Those that are 70 year old today would have likely changed the way they planned for retirement had they known SS wouldn’t exist. The need for SS is actually created by the promise of it.

You and I are only quasi-old, so we might have changed the way we planned too, but at least we have a some years left to try to fill the void. My little ones haven’t planned for retirement at all, so as long as they know what the score will be when they retire, it doesn’t much matter what the score is.

 

Go back and watch the old 60 minutes piece on SSI and how broken that system is. Compassion is often overtaken by greed and sloth. Social security is a worthy program that folks pay into, but they could go back and look at how individual changes have affected budgets over time.

The same could be said of medicare, I wonder what the affect of mobility scooters, c-pap machines and diabetes medications are over time on a budget while ignoring the big issue.

But alas, logic and reasonable discussions are bad.

 

There's no way Congress abolishes SS completely. The cuts or adjustments will be incremental, and thus less politically painful (frog in boiling water.) It sounds like there's some support for "f-ing," the elderly, so I question the force of the blowback.

 

LFG!!!!!!!!!!

Signed, #1 boomer

 

Are there any reasonable alternatives to Medicare or Social Security?

 

The elderly are reliable voters. I'm not for f'ing over anybody, but if the elderly are willing to support cutting Social Security and Medicare as long as they aren't the ones who have to deal with those cuts, f them.

 

So my current employer and I have been paying into SS and Medicare for 30 years, plus the 8 years I worked in other jobs before I began my career and I'm not entitled to this? Hard pass.

 

It's just so frustrating, because it's the existence of the large generation of boomers in the first place that is essentially breaking the system. So they get all the benefits, but then break it, so now the next generations get screwed. Just one last F U from the boomers before they fade away. So frustrating.

 

Do you think people with assets in excess of $10M need to collect SS? Is there any net worth where the individual could sacrifice for the common good? I see people living in $5M+ homes driving Bentley's getting botox shots monthly acting like they are going to keel over if their SS is threatened

 

Does the fact that they funded it for 50 years come into play at all?

 

Something needs to be done, it won’t be solvent in around a decade.
The earlier we shore it up the less painful the cuts.

 

Yep, I’m getting ready to apply as we speak. Been paying in for 48 years and I want my money

 

It should. Actually I've read some stuff recently that for many, they paid more out then they will get back. Although that was a few years ago - I don't know what the math says now. But listen, the median age in the house is almost 58 (for republicans). That means more than half the house are boomers. So essentially you have older people who want to cut a system, and they will probably protect themselves and people like them from those cuts, and once again, the younger generation - the one that currently lives with the bleakest retirement outcomes of any modern generation, have one less social safety net. And it just really pisses me off.

 

All the boomers need to call into fox and the talking points will change. No one wants an angry pre election town hall. Fix the system.
The whole everybody do their own thing is nutty. So no what do you do with the millions who squandered or were scammed, poverty slums? Nope, you take care of folks. The GOP solutions have more holes in it than a golf course in jersey

 

Why do Republicans hate old people or the infirm so much?

So they cut all Gov't programs for the needy - Then what, pass "open season" with AR15's to get rid of them?

Or maybe they can replicate that movie - the one where when you turn 30 you get a spike through your head. Logans Run?

Jesus, no food, no shelter, no health care...............damn loving people, the GOP.

 

As someone a long way from SS I could argue that if you haven’t paid your 35 trillion dollar debt before you retire why should you be able to collect a piece of the 5 trillion you supposedly put away? You are leaving the rest of us 30 trillion in the hole. I swear you boomers.

Having said that, SS is just a few tweaks from being solid for a long time.

 

I know how you feel. Indeed, the last thing we should want is one group of people being allowed to exploit everyone else. I don’t know that this is what’s happening though. It’s not really the boomers fault that their generation in larger than those that came later, any more that it’s gen z’s fault that it’s smaller than the boomers. And I’m guessing the boomers personally wouldn’t gain much personal satisfaction by learning Gen X will get lower retirement benefits.

I’m not arguing that we should cut SS and Medicare, but I think it shouldn’t be closed off for discussion. If we decide that it’s essential, or unacceptable to cut benefits to only younger people, then I think we need to just find a way to fund it. The trouble is, of course, that this “we” isn’t a single voice.