IF YOU WERE IN CONTROL OF CONGRESS, HOW WOULD YOU SUGGEST THEY REFORM OUR SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM?
- Would you totally dismantle the Ponzi scheme they call Social Security?
- Would you demand that Congress put back the $2.6 trillion they “borrowed”?
- Would you then set up a Personal Savings Program (PSP)? Under the PSP an individual would manage their own money, not Congress. Their employer will be required to match 6.2% of the employee’s salary and transfer all funds to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) of the employee’s choice.
Every American citizen who draws a paycheck is required by law to send in 6.2% of their hard-earned income for Social Security. Our employers are also required to send in a matching contribution. Our managers on Capitol Hill were entrusted with 12.4% of every American’s lifetime earnings. We assumed they would keep our money in a safe place until we needed it for retirement. We assumed that they would keep it in its own separate Social Security fund, but they didn’t!
They introduced the following legislation: When Social Security income exceeds the benefits that are paid out for that given year, the surplus has to be loaned to the general fund of the U.S. Treasury. The money owed, by the U.S. Treasury back to the Social Security account, is referred to as the “Social Security trust fund".
We are told by the trustees that the U.S. Treasury currently owes our Social Security trust fund $2.6 trillion. And since Congress is empowered to spend money out of the General Fund any way they please, that money is long gone. It has been spent by our managers and is now part of the $27 trillion national debt owed to China and others by our U.S. Treasury, or should I say, now owed by all of the American taxpayers. Congress, where’s our money?
Congress constantly talks about how Social Security is running out of money. How come we’ve never heard them utter one word about welfare or food stamp programs running out of money? How come they never mention that they have no money to fund military spending or pay themselves or their staff? How come every time they want to raise the debt ceiling, they always tell us that our vets and the elderly on Medicare and Medicaid will be the ones who will suffer if they don’t get the money they want?
Social Security started running at a deficit (paying out more money to recipients than it was taking in) back in 2010, and it is projected to continue to run at a deficit for the next 75 years. Why would our managers continue a program that doesn’t work; in essence, a Ponzi scheme? Bernie Madoff was an amateur at running a Ponzi scheme compared to our managers on Capitol Hill. They should have known they couldn’t kick the can down the road forever.
Are we to believe that our managers (our lawmakers) were so stupid that they didn’t realize what they were doing? They should have learned this crap in Accounting 101, or at least in Budgeting 102. It’s criminal what they’ve done to our Social Security savings account. I, for one, feel that the Department of Justice (DOJ) should appoint a special independent council to conduct an audit to expose where every penny has gone and then prosecute those responsible (past and present).
Would you totally dismantle the Ponzi scheme they call Social Security?
If we continue with our current Social Security program, it will cost the taxpayers $69 trillion over the next 75 years. That’s almost a trillion dollars a year (1/4 of the current U.S. budget). We can’t raise taxes any higher, and we can’t continue to borrow and pay trillions in interest! Congress has to stop the over-spending and start running our country like a business.
It’s time we demand that our managers stop the Ponzi scheme they call Social Security. They know the numbers don’t work, just ask them! The retirement numbers and retirement ages they projected may have worked with the growth we achieved back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but they no longer work now. Every member of Congress knows that one of two things would have to happen to achieve the retirement numbers promised and keep our current Social Security system from running at a deficit:
- retirement ages would have to be increased substantially, or
- benefits would have to be reduced substantially.
Would you demand that Congress put back the $2.6 trillion they “borrowed”?
That said, Congress needs to immediately put the $2.6 trillion (that they stole) back into our Social Security savings account, start the process of dismantling Social Security in its entirety, and switching over to a PSP. Every American should be allowed to control their own IRA without fear of it being stolen or at the very least mismanaged by our managers in Congress. The same rules that currently apply to Social Security (regarding the withdrawal of funds for retirement) would also apply to the PSP.
Would you then set up a Personal Savings Program (PSP)?
We need to instruct Congress to set up a 20-year plan to completely phase out Social Security. Within the next year, all taxpayers 20 years or more from retirement would automatically be switched over to a PSP. Taxpayers who are within 20 years of retirement would have two options:
- they could continue to pay into Social Security and would be guaranteed to receive all benefits promised once they reach retirement age, or
- they could request to pull their money out of Social Security and manage it themselves.
Every American that is automatically moved or elects to move to the PSP would have all of their Social Security funds transferred into an IRA of their choice. This would include the 6.2% they paid into Social Security, the 6.2% match made by their employers, and any interest earned. Under the new PSP, 6.2% of an employee’s salary each week would automatically be transferred into their IRA account. Their employer would also be required to continue to make a matching contribution to the employee’s IRA account.
That’s a 100% return on investment, even if their IRAs don’t grow. And if employees also take advantage of the 3-5% 401k match that some companies offer, they could end up with 18.4-22.4% of their lifetime earnings sitting in their IRAs when they retire. Under this type of system, our elderly might not have to struggle as much as they currently do on Social Security.
Once an individual reaches retirement age, they should be able to withdraw their funds (based upon their health) tax-free on a 10-, 15-, 20-, or 25-year monthly distribution schedule. Any monies left in their account after their death would go to their spouse tax-free. If they outlive their spouse, the money would go to their heirs, and then and only then, would that money be taxable, but only at a fair and proper tax rate.