Day: March 21, 2024

Can Social Security Be Saved?

Yes it can….but not under the system we have now.

For instance you pay your social security on every dime you earn…..but not so for the wealthy….

Most Americans contribute to Social Security year-round, but U.S. millionaires will stop paying into the critical program on March 2—just over two months into 2024.

That’s because Social Security’s payroll tax doesn’t apply to earned income above a certain level. For 2024, the cut-off is $168,600, and capital gains—such as stock appreciation—are not subject to the payroll levy at all. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and the world’s richest man, pays nothing into Social Security because he doesn’t take a salary.

Emma Curchin, domestic outreach and research assistant at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), noted Thursday that with the $168,600 payroll tax cap in place, a millionaire’s effective Social Security tax rate “is less than 1%.”

“This is compared to the 6.2% that any worker making less than $168,600 pays,” Curchin wrote. “The burden of paying for Social Security rests on working class people in this country.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/millionaires-social-security

So yes the benefit can be saved….just let those that pretend to care about the Middle Class work on a bill where everybody pays the same.

Can Social Security be saved?

Not if the dullards elect Trump in November….

The Republican Study Committee, which claims 175 of the House’s 219 Republican members of Congress, released their annual budget proposals last summer, and, sure to form, they also called for the setup of draconian cuts to Social Security.

Weirdly, the title of the section of their budget that cuts Social Security is titled Preventing Biden’s Cuts to Social Security. If you’re baffled by that because Biden has never called for cuts to Social Security, you live in the reality-based world.

In other words: “the system is going broke and we’re going to gut it, but not for the older voters the GOP needs: we’ll just stick Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen X with the pain.”

Having been sponsored by billionaires and bankers who’ve been lusting for decades over the trillions in cash in the Social Security trust fund, it makes perfect sense that it would also contain explicit threats to Social Security.

https://www.alternet.org/social-security-trump/

This is for all the old farts that will undoubtedly vote for Trump….if you like your retirement and your Social Security then pl;ease look elsewhere to place your vote for you will be eternally sorry if you choose wrongly.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Take It Or Leave It” Democracy

Every election I have the same problem…..I do not vote for the two parties and every time I get all sorts of comments…most of which I ignore….to be honest I have not voted for a winner in a presidential election since 1976.

I have suffered with the ignorance of if you vote for them then you elect the other….I have one vote and I will exercise my duty as a citizen and vote for the person that I believe would be best for all the country. It is that damn simple!

Most people are of the mind of ‘take it or leave it democracy….

There’s a troubling narrative setting in about our political system. I call it “take-it-or-leave-it democracy.” It’s characterized by the idea that our elected officials, our policies, our culture are beyond our control. Its side effects are substantial. People who catch this virus tend to infect those around them. A friend says they want to vote for a third party … and someone responds, “You know your vote doesn’t matter, right?” A colleague talks about donating to a candidate … and someone scoffs, “Why? Don’t you know special interests control everything?”

You get the picture. You know the type.

Given the increase in cases of take-it-or-leave-it-itis, it comes as no surprise that I often find myself asking similar questions. It’s a heck of a lot easier to talk about everything that’s destined to go wrong with our democracy than to map out what we’re actually going to do to change it. The minimal effort required to point out fatal flaws with our political system can sometimes feel unavoidable. By way of example, here’s Paul Krugman of The New York Times:

“I wish this election weren’t a contest between two elderly men and worry in general about American gerontocracy. But like it or not, this is going to be a race between Biden and Trump.”

This statement and this sort of thinking has limited value when it comes to improving our democracy. Krugman’s fatalistic framework may inadvertently discourage engagement with our democracy. It’s not, unfortunately, unsurprising to find this “take” filling up the pages of opinion sections. The widespread acceptance of take-it-or-leave-it-itis is the product of decades of Americans being told that “special interests,” the “other” party” and “them” have absolute control over our politics.

The minimal value of such thinking becomes clear by pointing out a single action that many Americans could take in under 10 minutes that would upend our politics and disrupt the election we apparently have no agency over: register as a non-affiliated voter. This action could be taken by everyone tomorrow and, as a result, directly undermine the conclusion that we have a “like it or not” system.

https://thefulcrum.us/electoral-reforms/leaving-a-political-party

I have not decided where my vote will go at this time…..but I am looking at candidates as they appear on the political horizon…I can tell you that I am not happy with either of the two major candidates and that will be taken into consideration.

I will vote my principles and I wish more Americans felt the same way.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”