Editorial: The Retirement Crisis Is Upon Us

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/editorial-retirement-crisis-upon-us

***SNIP

To sum up the problem and the solution, here are nine key facts about the crisis to keep in mind:

Americans over age 65 are projected to increase from 14 percent of the current population to about 21 percent of the population by 2035.

The Social Security Trust Fund had a surplus of $2.54 trillion at the end of 2011, and is projected to be solvent until 2033.
Though most people don't know it, Congress has cut Social Security payments by 24 percent since 1983, via delayed cost-of-living increases and higher taxes.

One-third of seniors live only on SS benefits, which is an average of $1,274 a month per retiree. For two-thirds of retirees, the Social Security benefit is more than half of what they live on.

The wealth gap is skewed by race. For every dollar a white person has in savings, a Latino person has only 6 cents and a black person has only 5 cents.

Gender is a huge issue: Seven out of 10 seniors living under 125 percent of the federal poverty line ( $14,360) are women.
Social Security is also the largest federal government program helping children, with 6.5 million recipients, totaling 8 eight of every 100 children in the U.S. in 2012.

Many people don't realize that no Social Security taxes are paid on incomes over $117,000, so the wealth get off easily. Slightly raising Social Security payroll taxes would more than cover and sustain the expansion of Social Security.

Huge numbers of Americans support Social Security reforms, with 87 percent of the population in favor of scrapping the $117k cap and 82 percent in favor of slight Social Security tax increases.

[liberal N proud]

1. All Congress needs to do is return the money that they stole from Social Security

All those years that there was a surplus and it was taken and spent on other things like WAR, are now coming back to bite us in the ass.

[TBF]

2. Easiest fixes -

Remove the cap - folks should be paying on entire income, not just up to $117K

Cut defense (this is where they took the stolen SS funds).

[a kennedy]

3. and everyone laughed at Al Gore for the "locked box" approach.

[BeyondGeography]

4. No difference between Bush and Gore

Everyone saw this coming decades ago. By 2000, it was a defining issue and Gore had it nailed down. But some people still persisted in believing there wasn't an inch of daylight between the two major parties...

[Zoonart]

5. Repeat After Me

CUT THE CRAP. RAISE THE CAP!


Everybody...................

[Larkspur]

6. Love it!

CUT THE CRAP. RAISE THE SOCIAL SECURITY CAP!