General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Just for the record: Social Security is self funded and does NOT add to the debt. rec for the truth. [View all]humbled_opinion
(4,423 posts)The payroll tax deduction that Obama put in place, is taking money out of the Social Security funds, I am not complaining because it gives my family $800 per year extra money which I spend and thus stimulate the economy. What should happen is that the ceiling should be lifted on the percentage that the rich pay in to S.S. that simple step would make the program solvent, but on top of that it should be means tested and ended for anyone that is pulling in 100K annual income in retirement. Those things would ensure that it remains available for everyone and in fact would allow for slight lowering of the retirement age back to 62.
One other point that could prove to be problematic for S.S. is the crazy money scam that is actually happening now. Many people that are unemployed and who have used up their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits are going to the doctors and claiming they are mentally impaired, i.e. suffering a breakdown, and other such trauma and getting placed on SSDI.
I wanted to find out the real numbers on this and I looked at usdebtclock.org the site lists the SS retirees and SSI including disability numbers from SSA. This site also has a clock that you can roll back over the last 12 years in 4 year increments. What I found was that from 2000 - 2004 the # of Retirees/SSI increase by 2.5 million, from 2004 to 2008 the # increased by 2.8 million but from 2004 thru present the number increased by 17.5 million that is nearly 700 percent increase in the last 4 years.
So the money that Social Security is outlaying is huge and is causing an effect to future benefits.