Social Security

[drawson]

SOCIAL SECURITY:



Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month -- and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid to the federal government to "put away," you may be interested in the following:



Q: Which party took Social Security from an independent fund and put it in the general fund so that Congress could spend it?



A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic-controlled House and Senate.

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Q: Which party put a tax on Social Security?



A: The Democratic party.

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Q: Which party increased the tax on Social Security?



A: The Democratic Party

with Al Gore casting the deciding vote.

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Q: Which party decided to give money to immigrants?



A: That's right, immigrants moved into this country and at 65 got SSI Social Security. The Democratic Party gave that to them although they never paid a dime into it.

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Then, after doing all this, the Democrats turn around and tell you the Republicans want to take your Social Security. And the worst part about it is, people believe it!



Pass it on please!

 

[KatDiesel]

Glad I don't pay into Social Security nor have to fear collecting it.

 

[Bob Wagner]

Originally posted by KatDiesel

Glad I don't pay into Social Security nor have to fear collecting it.

how do you get away w/o paying ?

 

[daveshoe]

Democrats and blame

Yep , i agree that Dems have taken all these positions, but I have a question for anyone out there. Remember the Regan tax cuts? I remember that they were also paired with ''loophole eliminators'' also known as revenue enhancers. Many people that I was working with stated that their take home pay was the same and the higher paid among them actually had LESS take home pay. The biggest reason for this is that Social Security was raised from 5. 85% to 7. 2% [of course double it for self employed]

Now I don't know which party was the most instrumental in raising the FICA tax, but it was probably used as a sort of flat tax so everyone would have to pay something in. That is the biggest problem that I have in justifying what happened on Reagan's watch. With the tax rate decrease, tax revenue increased, but I wonder how much of that increase is due to the FICA increase? When you throw two stimulus and/or retarding factors into the economy at the same time, who can say?

Of course you realize that this huge tax increase in FICA has been carefully saved for us baby boomers in the ''lockbox''



Although I am a far right conservative, I hate being lied to by either party.

OK-- flame away, but at least realize that I have honestly thought about this without regard to party loyalty.

:-{}

 

[Jeff Clark]

I wish they would privatize Social Security. I would rather handle my own retirement than let the Gov't do it. While they're at it, a flat tax would be nice.

 

[KBennett]

FLAT TAX!

What percentage would flat taxes be?



It is hard to tell who is telling the truth these days but if someone says "I am going to lower your taxes" they have my vote. Of course I would do a little research to make sure of their past record.

 

[Jeff Clark]

Re: FLAT TAX!

Originally posted by KBennett

What percentage would flat taxes be?

I'd say in the neighborhood of 15-17%. No deductions. Plain and simple do-it-yourself taxes. Of course that gets rid of most of the IRS and we can't have all those gov't employees out on the streets now, can we?

 

[KatDiesel]

Originally posted by Bob Wagner

how do you get away w/o paying ?

I pay into railroad retirement. Therefore I don't have to pay into Social Security. The best part is I'll basically just keep making the same amount of money after I retire.

 

[BarryG]

Bob:

Don't mean to speak for KAt but it may be the railroad retirement act or something like that. My wife is a teacher and she doesnt have to pay Social Security. She pays and the school district also pays into PERA (public employees retirement association) at least that is what they call it here. Not all school districts here use it but state troopers and judges do as well. It is a much better deal than social security. The benefit is based on number of years of service and your highest average salary. So if you have 40 years service you get 100% of your highest average salary. And to top it off if you work after you retire for a non pera organization there is no reduction in benefits like social security. Which my wife will also get to collect (though at a reduced rate because of the pera income) because she worked enough Social security quarters outside of her teaching job.

 

[illflem]

Most of the statements in the first post are false, just more urban legends circulating by email. Whenever I see the line Pass it on please! or tell everyone you know the information immediately becomes suspect.

And the worst part about it is people believe it



http://www.snopes.com/cgi-bin/news/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=000003

 

[NETim]

SS

The Social Security program is absolute crap!!! Incredibly poor return on the investment and it cannot be passed on to your heirs.



What party is protesting efforts to privatize SS? (Hint: the party of big government)



Tim

 

[FATCAT]

Here is a simple consept ...

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, and fundings (like of the Arts etc... ) are all unconstitutional and fraudulent programs.

Taking money from one group of people at the point of a gun and giving it to another group of people is UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Where is the Due Process?



Cut these scam programs out and we could easily have a 5% or less flat tax to fund the Constitutionally mandated federal requirements (Military, judiciary, law enforcement, etc... ).



These bogus "vote purchasing" federal programs are the reason why this country will very shortly become (if it already has'ent) a 3rd world hell-hole.

 

[Champane Flight]

Party of?

Party of big government= Republican?

 

[KBennett]

Re: Party of?

Originally posted by Champane Flight

Party of big government= Republican?

PROVE IT!

 

[Champane Flight]

Three letters

BHS ?

 

[KBennett]

OK, Im stumped. What is BHS?

 

[KatDiesel]

Originally posted by Dl5treez

Lots of bigger companies have internal retirement funding--the government allows the company to withold into that instead of FICA.

Railroad retirement is not specific to any particular railroad. Its a "Seperate entity" so you can work for several different railroads and still collect the same amount vs spending 30 years with the same railroad.

 

[Champane Flight]

BHS

Bureau of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy ever created by any administration.

 

[KBennett]

The BHS was consolidation.

First off, I want to apologize to the guy that wrote this thread for hijacking it. I just can't standby and let someone give an answer that doesn't make sense.



Why do you consider this "big government" ? Taking a lot of organizations and making them one does not make "big government". From a business point of view it is a sound principal.



I personally think the current administration has a tough road ahead of them turning around a ship that has been headed in the wrong direction for many years. Social Security and Taxes are items that they need to take a look at and get resolved. I think that cutting taxes is an excellent benefit to us all but there are quite a few that were around during the past administrations that argue that we should be paying off the debt. Why didn't they do that when they had the chance before? Was it because they were trying to bring Health Care into this mess too?



I am tired of all the bickering about what this administration has done wrong. At least they did something!



Maybe 9/11 was not the fault of the previous administrations but someone was sleeping at the wheel. Now we have a huge mess to clean up and no one is willing to help or get their hands dirty. And I don't see any of the new candidates telling us how it could have been done any better either.

 

[CFAR]

Who expects to live on Socialist Security when they retire?



You need to save money for retirement on your own. My parents put away money every month, before anything else for their retirement, I wish I had as much self dicipline. One of the most important things you can teach your children is to save for retirement now. Starting with the first job they have.