AP-GfK poll: Raise taxes to save Social Security

[trailmonkee]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON — Most Americans say go ahead and raise taxes if it will save Social Security benefits for future generations. And raise the retirement age, if you have to.

Both options are preferable to cutting monthly benefits, even for people who are years away from applying for them.

Those are the findings of a new Associated Press-GfK poll on public attitudes toward the nation's largest federal program.

Social Security is facing serious long-term financial problems. When given a choice on how to fix them, 53 percent of adults said they would rather raise taxes than cut benefits for future generations, according to the poll. Just 36 percent said they would cut benefits instead

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/08/26/2463190/ap-gfk-poll-raise-taxes-to-save.html#storylink=cpy


Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2012/08/26/2463190/ap-gfk-poll-raise-taxes-to-save.html

[rocktivity]

1. The easiest way to do that is raise the salary cap

Eliminate it altogether, and EVERYONE can pay a LOWER rate.

http://agit-pop.com/gallery_item/bush-in-30-years


rocktivity

[Tumbulu]

17. That is the best thing to do

and the most straight forward.

[bamacrat]

21. That would be the fair solution..

which means it will never happen.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. False choice

As long as the economy returns to the way it was before 2008, Social Security can pay full benefits for as far as the eye can see, without raising taxes or the retirement age. Projections claiming reduced payout in 25 years or so are based on Timmy Geithner cooking the projections to show that the economy will stay permanently as bad as it is now. That may be Timmy's plan, but it shouldn't be ours.

[yurbud]

7. yep--they don't even have to raise the rate--just raise the cap on income subject to SS tax

hell, if you raised it enough or even removed it, you could LOWER the rate.

Or if you don't raise the cap, apply the tax to ALL kinds of incomes.

I'm sure a lot of guys who fancy themselves Wall Street wheelers and dealers are going end up surviving on their SS checks.

[PSPS]

3. "Social Security is facing serious long-term financial problems"

Social Security is facing serious long-term financial problems. When given a choice on how to fix them, 53 percent of adults said they would rather raise taxes than cut benefits for future generations, according to the poll. Just 36 percent said they would cut benefits instead

You know the story is biased when they use that canard. Social Security is not "facing serious long-term financial problems." Well, I guess it depends on how you define "serious," "long-term" and "financial problems."

Since everyone likes to bandy about the ridiculously high figure of $250K/year as the definition of "middle class," why not just raise the cap to that?

But what this is really about is promoting the cat food commission's desire to do away with the program and turn its $3 trillion surplus over to their benefactors on Wall Street.

[global1]

4. I Posted This A Long Time Ago - Lift The Cap or Raise The Cap.....

we should mount a campaign where people and celebrities all over this country take pics of themselves - raising or lifting their cap. Check out the following link for some examples:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1818709&mesg_id=1818709

Click on view all and see all the other examples not included in the original post.

[xtraxritical]

5. FORGET ABOUT RAISING THE RETIREMENT AGE !!!

Take the cap off income subject to SS and Medicare withholding for both employee and employers. Problem solved.

[xtraxritical]

6. FORGET ABOUT RAISING THE RETIREMENT AGE !!!

Bring the troops home and close all the military golf courses (about 180) around the world. Problem solved.

[yurbud]

8. when unemployment is high, we should be talking about LOWERING the retirement age

to remove some people from the workforce and free up jobs.

That is such a no brainer it's painful, but the last thing Wall Street wants is anything like full employment.

[xtraxritical]

14. Hear, hear urbud.

[harun]

20. Yet no Democrats are advocating that, NONE. Wimps.

[yurbud]

22. in Washington, being a wimp means not stomping the poor and middle class to death and pulling out

their fillings to make a necklace for the rich.

It never seems to mean the opposite.

[elbloggoZY27]

9. SSA & Medicare

These programs have been working in the positive for years. Benefits should not be cut or drastically changed. Voucher ideas are absolutely no realistic answer.

Whats hurting the programs now are senior employees leaving due to interference from those in Washington who just do not care.


Pay freezes and poor or unqualified managers at all levels need to be replaced. There was a time when working for the Government meant something. Doing the right thing is hard what we have is the wrong approach.

[crimson77]

10. There has to be a trade off or it will never even come close to passing.

I make the trade off, means testing and raising the age requirement to 67 for people under 55 and 69 for people under 35, also you must work 80 quarters to qualify as opposed to 40 now. For that I would think the republican would accept a cap change til 200,000.

[hughee99]

11. The day you start telling people they can pay in their whole life

but if they saved enough on their own for retirement, they won't get any back, is the beginning of the end for SS. Means testing will pit one group against another. Even if you raise the cap, at least those people would get some of it back in their older years. Right now it's a program for everyone, it will need to remain one.

[crimson77]

12. Give me something to work with.

Give them an opt out, say you have paid 250,000 into the system and you want to opt out, you can but you get nothing . If you have contributed 250,000, you more than likely aren't going to need it.

[hughee99]

13. Even that could get sketchy, I think you'd do better just to raise the contribution ceiling

(250K would be fine for now) and continue to pay out. I think it has to be a program for pretty much everyone, though, meaning you can't opt out or get means tested out.

[yurbud]

23. that would negate the SECURITY part of it--and the people who would cash out are the type

who would most likely end up with nothing but SS to rely on in the end and desperately need it anyway.

[xtraxritical]

15. Fuck raising retirement age.

[yurbud]

18. republicans are a shrinking minority. Throwing us under the bus to make a deal with them

makes no sense when we can just wait for them to die and fix it properly.

[NorthCarolina]

16. I don't know ANYONE that says "go ahead and raise the retirement age".

Dropping a seed?

[xtraxritical]

19. Good call N.C.

[TexasBushwhacker]

24. Remove the cap temporarily

Tax ALL income, even capital gains and dividends, to get it solvent. No cap. Then the federal government doesn't get to treat it like a cookie jar. That should turn things around pretty quick. Then they can think about putting in a cap again. They're already raising the age for retiring with full benefits to 67. I don't think it needs to be raised above that. If they wanted they could let people postpone retirement until 72 for a higher benefit. Right now they can only work until 70 for the maximum.