A couple of SSI points

[SHRED]

I just don't hear enough emphasis put on the fact that SSI is an insurance plan and never was intended to be a retirement plan. More is coming out now but that is one of the main points, I think.

Also, what about the neocon agenda of "pulling yourself up by your on bootstraps"? I mean hell, that is all you hear from this bunch regarding any social program.
Why is SSI different for them?
That is the question to ask them.
We know about the 2 trillion dollar money grab for shrub's wall street buddies, but I would like to hear from the repugs why. Why the "pull yourself by...." doesn't apply, in their minds, here.

[liveoaktx]

1. James Roosevelt made that point at the Dem SSI hearing

the other day. It is not meant to be an INVESTMENT plan but INSURANCE

James Roosevelt on SSI

[SHRED]

2. We are suffering under the lack...

of any decent civics/social studies/history classes in public school. Very few looked forward to taking these requirements where I went to high school. They had one or two required classes in the 4 years.

I think we have generations of voting age citizens who don't have a clue about the most basic political structure, law, and history of the USA.

We are drowning in ignorance that is continually fed by the mainstream media.

[jarab]

3. There must be a better definition ...

than investment/insurance. With health or life insurance (or auto insurance) you use it only when it becomes necessary. You die, get sick or have an accident. If you don't do one of these all your premiums and interests are not recoverable, especially in the cases of health and auto insurance.
If SS was insurance as generally accepted, all those better-off retirees wouldn't be recipients. They would have no need - as with other "insurances". Since they're rich and still receiving SS they don't really need, I'd say it was a "small" investment for them.

I can accept that SS has always been an investment of sorts, but the insurance analogy is more complex. If we would revert to that long-ago day when those currently rich recipients were meager wage earners in their young adulthood - when they were poor people - we could say that the small SS deductions (then) were insurances for them too, since they likely didn't know at that time they'd someday be rich - and that SS would eventually morph into a tiny little "investment" in their portfolio.

...O...

[HuskiesHowls]

4. You have to remember..it NOT just for retirement....

It also includes disability, helping people who are disabled, and survivor's insurance for kids who have lost a parent.

One of the talking points I hear on the radio a lot is about the "young" people that are interviewed going on and on about how they can make more money in the stock market than the return is on the Social Security trust fund. What they are NOT looking at is....what happens when THEY have an accident and become disabled?? Then they can't make the money to invest, they have no Social Security to get diability from...what do they do for money THEN???

For example...how many college athletes think they're going to make it big in pro sports...and the first thing of any importance they do is have a career-ending injury??? What happens to them? No big-money career!!!

[SHRED]

5. Good point

Also, to think that the baby boomers would reduce their benefits for the young to play the stock market is ludicrous.
The older citizens vote and therefore have the clout.

[sevendogs]

6. Clarification

I receive SSDI, which is Social Security Disability Insurance. This is much, much harder to be qualified for than regular SS, which is based on your age.

There is another program known as SSI for the disabled. This is for those who do not qualify, but are disabled, and is based on income. It is more what what would term welfare and is not based upon the number of "quarters" of work that have been contributed to the system.

Just to let you folks know. I get a decent pension, too, but my SSDI payment is higher than my pension. I don't want that changed and I have registered my protest with SSA (Social Security Administration).

[saltpoint]

7. My brother is severely mentally ill and relies --

-- on SSI. He would be homeless and extremely vulnerable without it.

I have no trust in the Republican majority in Congress to protect this program and a great deal of the anger I feel for the Republican party is its casual dismissal of the need for such programs.

They have money and no heart. And their policies reflect this again and again and again.