IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU ARE REPUBLICANOR DEMOCRAT!

KEEP IT GOING!!!!
2008 Election Issue !!

GET A BILL STARTED TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOC. SEC.


This must be an issue in "2008" Please! Keep it going.

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SOCIAL SECURITY:

(This is worth reading. It is short and to the point.)

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.

Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.

You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special planfor themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.

In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan.

For all practical purposes their plan works like this:

When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.

Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments..

For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800, 000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275, 000.00 during the last years of their lives.

This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.


Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.

Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA.! ZILCH...

This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan . The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;

" OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK "!

From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer). We can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.

Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator! Bill Bradley's benefits!




Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.

That change would be to:


Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us


Then sit back.....


And see how fast they would fix it.

Got this in an eamil and wanted to share...

no kiddin. just like they always found the time to vote on their own payraises but the minimum wage workers didn't deserve one.

I know I ain't gonna rely on SSI when I get to that point in my life, that's why I save at home for my retirement, plus i will have a nice inheritance, which I hope don't come anytime to soon.

Dang inheritance Davy? Can i marry you? just kidding..

alot of people aren't gonna be able to rely on it but with privatization they aren't gonna be any better.

i try to save as much as i can so that i hopefully won't have to depend on it but a lot of people aren't that lucky.

I agree..King

only if we can live in Hawaii

that's smart dayv. i hope you get to where you want to be.

people don't realize that just a few bucks a week makes a big difference many years down the road.

The SSI is the only part of the fed budget that makes a profit. It takes in more money than it pays out. Always has.
The problem is it is robbed by every other department in the fed gov, and an IOU is put in its place.

They need to keep their grubby hands off it. It isnt in trouble, thats another myth they want you to believe.

Social Security is not part of the Federal Budget general fund. It is a separate account and has its own source of income. Social Security payments do not go into the general fund, they go in the Social Security trust fund, and should NOT be counted as general revenue. The trust fund is supposed to be used to pay future benefits. But....keep reading....

Currently, there is more being payed into the Social Security Trust Fund than is being paid out to beneficiaries. What's left over is routinely being "borrowed" and used as if it were general budget revenue. Government agencies using that money promise to pay it back (IOUs). All of the money in the Social Security Trust Fund has been spent! That's part of the National Debt. So Social Security is just a very large tax collection tool.

http://www.federalbudget.com/

i remember hearing that and i saw another post you made on the subject fanta. ain't it funny how they say it's in trouble so we need to privatize. they never mentioned that they were borrowing from it or which companies(individuals) would profit from the privatization.

They do pay into Social Security, but I don't think they need it.

Check this out:
Congress: Rank-and-File Members' Salary

The current salary (2006) for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $165,200 per year.
· Members are free to turn down pay increase and some choose to do so.
· In a complex system of calculations, administered by the Office of Personnel Management, congressional pay rates also affect the salaries for federal judges and other senior government executives.
· During the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin considered proposing that elected government officials not be paid for their service. Other Founding Fathers, however, decided otherwise.
· From 1789 to 1815, members of Congress received only a per diem (daily payment) of $6.00 while in session. Members began receiving an annual salary in 1815, when they were paid $1,500 per year.

Congress: Leadership Members' Salary (110th Congress)
Leaders of the House and Senate are paid a higher salary than rank-and-file members.

Senate Leadership

Majority Leader - $183,500
Minority Leader - $183,500
House Leadership
Speaker of the House - $212,100
Majority Leader - $183,500
Minority Leader - $183,500

A cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increase takes effect annually unless Congress votes to not accept it.
NOTE: H.J.Res. 20, the Revised Continuing Appropriations Resolution for FY2007, as passed by the House on January 31, 2007, would deny a pay adjustment in 2007 to the Speaker of the House, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the House and Senate, and the Senators and Representatives. Senate consideration of the resolution is pending.

Congress: Benefits
You may have read that Members of Congress do not pay into Social Security. Well, that's a myth.
Prior to 1984, neither Members of Congress nor any other federal civil service employee paid Social Security taxes. Of course, the were also not eligible to receive Social Security benefits. Members of Congress and other federal employees were instead covered by a separate pension plan called the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). The 1983 amendments to the Social Security Act required federal employees first hired after 1983 to participate in Social Security. These amendments also required all Members of Congress to participate in Social Security as of January 1, 1984, regardless of when they first entered Congress. Because the CSRS was not designed to coordinate with Social Security, Congress directed the development of a new retirement plan for federal workers. The result was the Federal Employees' Retirement System Act of 1986.
Members of Congress receive retirement and health benefits under the same plans available to other federal employees. They become vested after five years of full participation.

Members elected since 1984 are covered by the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS). Those elected prior to 1984 were covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). In 1984 all members were given the option of remaining with CSRS or switching to FERS.

As it is for all other federal employees, congressional retirement is funded through taxes and the participants' contributions. Members of Congress under FERS contribute 1.3 percent of their salary into the FERS retirement plan and pay 6.2 percent of their salary in Social Security taxes.
Members of Congress are not eligible for a pension until they reach the age of 50, but only if they've completed 20 years of service. Members are eligible at any age after completing 25 years of service or after they reach the age of 62. Please also note that Member's of Congress have to serve at least 5 years to even receive a pension.

The amount of a Congressperson's pension depends on the years of service and the average of the highest 3 years of his or her salary. By law, the starting amount of a Member's retirement annuity may not exceed 80% of his or her final salary.
According to the Congressional Research Service, 413 retired Members of Congress were receiving federal pensions based fully or in part on their congressional service as of Oct. 1, 2006. Of this number, 290 had retired under CSRS and were receiving an average annual pension of $60,972. A total of 123 Members had retired with service under both CSRS and FERS or with service under FERS only. Their average annual pension was $35,952 in 2006.


If we could work somewhere for 5 years and receive an annual pension of almost $36,000 not including anything our handsome salary afforded us to save, why would we need Social Security? Why do they?

Something else about Social Security - does not exactly agree with what Fanta says:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdoc.cfm?index=3650&type=0

Social Security and the Federal Budget: The Necessity of Maintaining a Comprehensive Long-Range Perspective
By law, the Social Security program is treated as an "off-budget" entity, and its financial figures are displayed separately from the rest of the budget. The separate display, along with the use of trust funds as an accounting device, is a means of distinguishing the program's finances from those of other government activities. However, the distinction can be confusing when it leads people to think of Social Security as an independent financial entity. Social Security is a federal program, and as such, all of its taxes are received by and its outlays dispensed from the U.S. Treasury.

Focusing on an accumulating balance in the Social Security trust funds can also be misleading. The only economically significant way that the government has a surplus is if there is a unified budget surplus--when total receipts are greater than total outlays. Although separate taxes are collected for Social Security, the money left over after benefits are paid is used to fund other government programs or to pay down the debt held by the public. Moreover, in the future, those separate tax receipts will become insufficient to maintain the program once the post-World War II baby-boom generation begins drawing federal entitlement benefits. Social Security and other entitlement programs will then be dependent on the federal government to cover their costs--at the same time that the government must pay for its many other functions.

Regardless of how any federal program is financed and accounted for--and whether it is presented as on- or off-budget--a full understanding of the government's looming fiscal strains and the potential economic impact of its fiscal condition requires that all government functions be considered together. It is the federal government's total claims on the nation's resources that affect the economy—not the individual components that make up those claims.

That does I am running for Congress. My platform is:

1. I will steal only half as much as the person I replace and if I am re-elected I will steal only half as much the second time as I did the first.

2. A chicken in every pot and some pot for every chicken.

3. I will not solicit sex from pages, barnyard animals or alien life forms, but I will screw my constituents on an equal and frequent basis.

4. I will not drive drunk of under the influence of mood altering chemical, I will hire a chauffer at government expense.

5. I will promise everything but deliver little or nothing unless it guarentees my re-election.

6. I promise to keep myself abreast of world affairs by taking frequent and long fact finding missions to all areas of the world that have nice beaches frequented by hot babes.

7. I promise to answer all letters from all constituents with a form letter with my computer generated signature stating that I am reviewing the problem. I further promise to roll all those letters into fireplace logs and burn them while I toast my new lady with fine wine supplied by a lobbyist.

8. When I return to my home state for infrequent visits I promise to have my picture taken with as many people as possible while I deftly pick their pockets.

9. I promise to have an open door policy so that anyone can come in sit down and tell me their problem. The more you pay, the more I will listen.

10. When I am finally snared in an FBI Sting Operation, I promise to scream "ENTRAPMENT" as long and as loud as posible.

Redy,
From your last post;

The only economically significant way that the government has a surplus is if there is a unified budget surplus--when total receipts are greater than total outlays. Although separate taxes are collected for Social Security, the money left over after benefits are paid is used to fund other government programs or to pay down the debt held by the public.

IMO means the same as;

Currently, there is more being payed into the Social Security Trust Fund than is being paid out to beneficiaries. What's left over is routinely being "borrowed" and used as if it were general budget revenue. Government agencies using that money promise to pay it back (IOUs).

Its worded a little, but really has the same significant meaning. Only the one is acting as if they have an equal right to use it to pay off the national debt while the other is saying Social security is meant to be a separate entity reserved to ensure the elderly American public will be taken care of.

Just think if they didn't spend the money in the trust fund to cover up the shortfalls in the rest of the Fed Budget, how much more interest this surplus could generate. Maybe that's what you are trying to point out.

To me this money is taken out of my paycheck for one reason. To rightfully maintain a quality life for the elderly. The elderly who like me have paid into SS while working hard their whole life.

One day I too will want to retire and they keep saying the money wont be there. It would be if they would keep their grubby little hands off the fund, and use it for its original intentions, ONLY. Quit making war with it, quit paying for illegal immigrant children's education and free health care, and quit using it to cover up the misuse of other taxes.

Like I said before, I dont mind paying taxes. I just hate the wasteful use of my tax dollars. A human being should not have to work until they are 80-90 years old, and many physically cant. Social Security was set up as a way to respect our elders, and our handicapped. They invest the money, it makes a profit, grows, and then they spend it on something else. The something else that they claim all the other taxes you pay are meant to cover.

Lets all think about that when we ***** about income taxes being illegal, and the next time you hear about a politician talking about lowering taxes for the rich.

Same thing when they talk about raising them. They need to reign in their spending, misuse of taxes, and balance the budget without screwing around with our Social Security. The only part of the budget that shows a surplus before they borrow it, leaving an IOU they never intend on honoring!!!

And Ram, Pay your dam taxes!!!!

yep