One New York Times article (Re: The Fed’s Beige Book Survey) says that: "Reports of rising wage pressures were less prevalent in the latest survey than in its previous report, although there was continued upward pressure for high-skilled labor in such areas as high-tech."
That same article also says, "Many private economists believe the big drop in oil prices will provide a boost to the overall economy by giving consumers more money to spend on other products."
But a different New York Times article says: "Americans Pocketing What They Save on Gas, Retail Data Suggests"
Well, both reports came to the same conclusion (0.4%) — and for the sake of argument, and to make a worse case scenario, I added them together to make .08% (a higher number).
Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price has Social Security in his Crosshairs: Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), the new House Budget Committee chairman, hinted to the Heritage Foundation on Monday that he has big plans for Social Security “reform” in the next two years, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Talking Points Memo blog. Price mentioned means-testing and increasing the eligibility age as possibilities. He also suggested that privatizing Social Security is a possibility.
“With Chairman Price’s comments this week, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hinting at a Grand Bargain last week, there definitely seems to be a House-Senate consensus and a plan to cut Social Security,” said Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance.
Talking Points Memo also posted on Wednesday that “The 80-Year Conservative War on Social Security Is Back for More,” noting that conservatives have virulently opposed Social Security since its inception. The post went back to the New Deal Era creation until 1955, when conservatives called for the complete dissolution of Social Security or for its replacement with much less substantive programs. As concerns about solvency grew in the 1980’s, President Reagan signed a bill that slowly increased the retirement age while also boosting payroll tax rates, opening the door for later failed privatization efforts by President George W. Bush. The conclusion: with a Republican majority now in Congress, it is entirely possible that Social Security could face further attacks.
Senators Send Letter to Leader McConnell Repudiating House Rules Change: On Monday, several Democratic Senators sent a letter to McConnell (R-KY), pressing him to repudiate a rules change by House Republicans that could cut Social Security disability payments by 20%. Last week, the House included language in their new rules for the 114th Congress, making it more difficult to allocate payroll tax revenues to replenish the Social Security Disability Trust Fund, which is due to run out of money in 2016. The Hill reported on the Democrats' letter, which warns that nearly 11 million Americans could see their Social Security benefits cut if Congress does not take action in the next two years. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (IL), Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Chuck Schumer (NY) and Finance Committee ranking Democrat Ron Wyden (OR) signed the letter, as did Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
“We are deeply concerned that the rule change in the House will impact millions of Social Security beneficiaries,” the Senators wrote. “House Republicans acted according to their extreme ideology and put these benefits at risk by adopting a legislative rule change that creates a point of order against simple bipartisan technical corrections.”
Sen. Rand Paul Alleges Widespread Fraud in Social Security Disability, to Experts’ Shock: On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) accused a large subset of Americans of being able to “game the system” to receive Social Security Disability benefits. Senator Paul then joked that "half the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts.” These comments have generated substantial criticism from labor and disability advocates, with some also noting that Senator Paul is a likely contender in the 2016 Presidential Election and has reportedly been visiting New Hampshire and other early primary states.
“Senator Paul should not trivialize the challenges faced by of millions of people,” said Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance. “The kind of fraud he is talking about is very rare and distracts from real concerns over the well-being of the disabled.”
So I have three close personal family members getting SS money. My wife has cancer in her brain and spine. She sees a doctor three times per month at a minimum, one of whom she must fly to visit. My sister has Down's syndrome and holds part time volunteer work. My brother in law is Bi-Polar, having inherited the disease from his mother, and literally can blow up for little or no reason. Which of the three deserves less money? My wife and brother in law each have put in money to FICA for over 20 years. You cannot judge from someone walking to and from the car how healthy they are. And I work to make the drugs that will likely have or will save one of your family members. I can stop doing so and your family will die if you ask. Are there frauds? Yes, but they pale in comparison to the money for new tanks the army does not want, for the planes the Air Force does not want, to the farmer's crop price supports, and to the money given to dictators to allow goods to be sold into their countries.
Interestingly, Social Security law does not require "horrific" disability, so they'll have to change the literal definition of disabled as it relates to SS disability (both SSDI and SSI use the same definition of disability).
I worked for four years as a disability claims examiner, processing SSD/SSI claims in my state. The amount of out-and-out fraud is tiny, and the people at that level are denying nearly all who apply, appropriately. The problem is at the ALJ level, not because the administrative law judges are seeking to defraud the government, but because once the claimant gets to that level, there is nobody representing the government, explaining why the claimant was previously denied.
Add that, and you'll see the number of people on disability will go down.
I'm sure that there is. I posit probably 1 in every 5 or 10,000 people are getting disability payments fraudulently. But I can also say something else - I know that in Congress, at least two in around 300 republicans are convicted felons. So... which group has the higher rate of bad apples in it?
How about the crash of 2008 or 2001? Do you know how many people lost their savings in the market? *That* is why social security is good as a pension and why pensions are so important...
Pretending returns are always positive on a private investment is not in reality of what can and does happen.
CNN: He then qualified his comments by saying there are people who are legitimately disabled, but reiterated that there are also "malingers" who are essentially taking money from people who are paraplegic and quadriplegic.
"We all know people who are horrifically disabled and can't work, but if you have able-bodied people taking the money then there's not enough money left for the people who are truly disabled."
(* Personally, I don't know anyone who is "horrifically disabled" and can't work — but it is the GOP who going to take money from them, not "malingerers". First the GOP was using their "divide and conquer" strategy to get Social Social retirees riled up against the disabled. Now it sounds like Rand Paul is using the same strategy to get the "most disabled" riled up against those with lesser disabilities.)
Have you considered the incredibly poor return on Social Security? If these funds were actually invested, and got a 4% return, it would double the actual return, and would actually be an asset for the family. But that would make them less dependent on the feds, and where would the government find money as easy to take as the Social Security lockbox?
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) while on a two-day tour through New Hampshire, engaged in a a conversation about the viability of safety net programs:
"The thing is, in all of these programs there’s always somebody who’s deserving. But everybody in this room knows somebody who is gaming the system. What I tell people is, if you look like me and you hop out of your truck, you shouldn’t be getting your disability check. Over half of the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts. Join the club."
Rand's comment comes as congressional Republicans are poised to cut the Social Security Disability Insurance program.
Because it stops the most destitute having to resort to begging, which would keep them in their place, or resorting to crime, which would allow the reps to shoot them.
...that's what the GOP claims. But for the sake of argument, even if (hypothetically speaking) there was 5% fraud in the system, why would the GOP want to punish the other 95%?
It is not that they are inherently evil. They believe that the form of Government they will create will be best for everyone once it is complete. They believe, like DIck Cheney did on Torturing Children, the ends justify the means and it does not matter if a few get hurt along the way. Of course the fantasy Government or non-Government they envision is complete Madness and only serves the interests of .1% that is lining their pockets and destroying our Nation, all in the Name of Greed.
They attack ANYTHING that is part of the social safety net and now they attack CRIPPLES first! They attack the disabled first and foremost, the most vulnerable in American society. What is WRONG with these people???
Sorry, people are not getting rich off the books. Almost everywhere businesses report 1099-misc payouts. The underground economy is more with illegals and drugs, cash business which is not "the Internet".
People are hurting , the statistics are all over which show this to be true.
Thanks John: That was a very lengthy article (that could have been a eBook) about the history of Social Security (leaving out nothing except for what all the players ate for breakfast.) It was the best on the subject that I've ever read.
In an attempt to share, I posted a few passages that I thought were the most concise and relevant to the topic — without all the intricate details — to greatly shorten the article in an effort to make it more digestible for busy readers. The original article has about 39,225 words — whereas my "condensed version" only has about 4,779 words. But for those of you who have the time, patience and curiosity, I'd read the whole article.
Here's what the author and other business reporters miss on labor participation. In 1990, according to the IRS, some $92 billion were earned by Americans "off the books" (or unreported.) Today that figure is $2.1 trillion, enough to nearly erase the annual deficit. What has happened is--because of the internet--large swaths of citizens take early retirement and then advertise their skills and services on places like Craigslist or through their own website and pick up an additional $20k or more on their own terms and not reporting it as income. That is why the economy's retail and restaurant sales are more indicative of a minus five percent unemployment rate. Since the IRS was forced to cut employees by 10,000 in the past three years, they can't enforce these scofflaws even if they wanted.
One New York Times article (Re: The Fed’s Beige Book Survey) says that: "Reports of rising wage pressures were less prevalent in the latest survey than in its previous report, although there was continued upward pressure for high-skilled labor in such areas as high-tech."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/business/economy/feds-beige-book-surve...
That same article also says, "Many private economists believe the big drop in oil prices will provide a boost to the overall economy by giving consumers more money to spend on other products."
But a different New York Times article says: "Americans Pocketing What They Save on Gas, Retail Data Suggests"
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/business/retail-sales-dropped-more-tha...
Well, both reports came to the same conclusion (0.4%) — and for the sake of argument, and to make a worse case scenario, I added them together to make .08% (a higher number).
Actually, 8 pennies is 8/100th of a dollar, or 8%. ;)
Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price has Social Security in his Crosshairs: Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), the new House Budget Committee chairman, hinted to the Heritage Foundation on Monday that he has big plans for Social Security “reform” in the next two years, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Talking Points Memo blog. Price mentioned means-testing and increasing the eligibility age as possibilities. He also suggested that privatizing Social Security is a possibility.
“With Chairman Price’s comments this week, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hinting at a Grand Bargain last week, there definitely seems to be a House-Senate consensus and a plan to cut Social Security,” said Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance.
Talking Points Memo also posted on Wednesday that “The 80-Year Conservative War on Social Security Is Back for More,” noting that conservatives have virulently opposed Social Security since its inception. The post went back to the New Deal Era creation until 1955, when conservatives called for the complete dissolution of Social Security or for its replacement with much less substantive programs. As concerns about solvency grew in the 1980’s, President Reagan signed a bill that slowly increased the retirement age while also boosting payroll tax rates, opening the door for later failed privatization efforts by President George W. Bush. The conclusion: with a Republican majority now in Congress, it is entirely possible that Social Security could face further attacks.
Senators Send Letter to Leader McConnell Repudiating House Rules Change: On Monday, several Democratic Senators sent a letter to McConnell (R-KY), pressing him to repudiate a rules change by House Republicans that could cut Social Security disability payments by 20%. Last week, the House included language in their new rules for the 114th Congress, making it more difficult to allocate payroll tax revenues to replenish the Social Security Disability Trust Fund, which is due to run out of money in 2016. The Hill reported on the Democrats' letter, which warns that nearly 11 million Americans could see their Social Security benefits cut if Congress does not take action in the next two years. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (IL), Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Chuck Schumer (NY) and Finance Committee ranking Democrat Ron Wyden (OR) signed the letter, as did Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
“We are deeply concerned that the rule change in the House will impact millions of Social Security beneficiaries,” the Senators wrote. “House Republicans acted according to their extreme ideology and put these benefits at risk by adopting a legislative rule change that creates a point of order against simple bipartisan technical corrections.”
Sen. Rand Paul Alleges Widespread Fraud in Social Security Disability, to Experts’ Shock: On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) accused a large subset of Americans of being able to “game the system” to receive Social Security Disability benefits. Senator Paul then joked that "half the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts.” These comments have generated substantial criticism from labor and disability advocates, with some also noting that Senator Paul is a likely contender in the 2016 Presidential Election and has reportedly been visiting New Hampshire and other early primary states.
“Senator Paul should not trivialize the challenges faced by of millions of people,” said Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance. “The kind of fraud he is talking about is very rare and distracts from real concerns over the well-being of the disabled.”
* Nancy Altman-Eric Kingson Book Makes a Case for Expanding Social Security Now: Nancy Altman and Eric Kingson, co-directors of Social Security Works, have written a new book, Social Security Works!: Why Social Security Isn’t Going Broke and How Expanding It Will Help Us All. The book explains why the time is right to expand Social Security. Events related to the book are scheduled in Washington, DC for January 21 at Busboys and Poets with Sen. Sanders and January 28 at the AFL-CIO with AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler.
"To put this into some perspective, 8/10ths of a penny is 0.08 percent of one dollar"
Where I went to school (Montana), 8 pennies is 0.08 percent of one dollar.
So I have three close personal family members getting SS money. My wife has cancer in her brain and spine. She sees a doctor three times per month at a minimum, one of whom she must fly to visit. My sister has Down's syndrome and holds part time volunteer work. My brother in law is Bi-Polar, having inherited the disease from his mother, and literally can blow up for little or no reason. Which of the three deserves less money? My wife and brother in law each have put in money to FICA for over 20 years. You cannot judge from someone walking to and from the car how healthy they are. And I work to make the drugs that will likely have or will save one of your family members. I can stop doing so and your family will die if you ask. Are there frauds? Yes, but they pale in comparison to the money for new tanks the army does not want, for the planes the Air Force does not want, to the farmer's crop price supports, and to the money given to dictators to allow goods to be sold into their countries.
Interestingly, Social Security law does not require "horrific" disability, so they'll have to change the literal definition of disabled as it relates to SS disability (both SSDI and SSI use the same definition of disability).
I worked for four years as a disability claims examiner, processing SSD/SSI claims in my state. The amount of out-and-out fraud is tiny, and the people at that level are denying nearly all who apply, appropriately. The problem is at the ALJ level, not because the administrative law judges are seeking to defraud the government, but because once the claimant gets to that level, there is nobody representing the government, explaining why the claimant was previously denied.
Add that, and you'll see the number of people on disability will go down.
I'm sure that there is. I posit probably 1 in every 5 or 10,000 people are getting disability payments fraudulently. But I can also say something else - I know that in Congress, at least two in around 300 republicans are convicted felons. So... which group has the higher rate of bad apples in it?
How about the crash of 2008 or 2001? Do you know how many people lost their savings in the market? *That* is why social security is good as a pension and why pensions are so important...
Pretending returns are always positive on a private investment is not in reality of what can and does happen.
CNN: He then qualified his comments by saying there are people who are legitimately disabled, but reiterated that there are also "malingers" who are essentially taking money from people who are paraplegic and quadriplegic.
(* Personally, I don't know anyone who is "horrifically disabled" and can't work — but it is the GOP who going to take money from them, not "malingerers". First the GOP was using their "divide and conquer" strategy to get Social Social retirees riled up against the disabled. Now it sounds like Rand Paul is using the same strategy to get the "most disabled" riled up against those with lesser disabilities.)
Have you considered the incredibly poor return on Social Security? If these funds were actually invested, and got a 4% return, it would double the actual return, and would actually be an asset for the family. But that would make them less dependent on the feds, and where would the government find money as easy to take as the Social Security lockbox?
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) while on a two-day tour through New Hampshire, engaged in a a conversation about the viability of safety net programs:
Rand's comment comes as congressional Republicans are poised to cut the Social Security Disability Insurance program.
Because it stops the most destitute having to resort to begging, which would keep them in their place, or resorting to crime, which would allow the reps to shoot them.
If they aren't evil, then they must be Sociopaths.
...that's what the GOP claims. But for the sake of argument, even if (hypothetically speaking) there was 5% fraud in the system, why would the GOP want to punish the other 95%?
It is not that they are inherently evil. They believe that the form of Government they will create will be best for everyone once it is complete. They believe, like DIck Cheney did on Torturing Children, the ends justify the means and it does not matter if a few get hurt along the way. Of course the fantasy Government or non-Government they envision is complete Madness and only serves the interests of .1% that is lining their pockets and destroying our Nation, all in the Name of Greed.
They attack ANYTHING that is part of the social safety net and now they attack CRIPPLES first! They attack the disabled first and foremost, the most vulnerable in American society. What is WRONG with these people???
Sorry, people are not getting rich off the books. Almost everywhere businesses report 1099-misc payouts. The underground economy is more with illegals and drugs, cash business which is not "the Internet".
People are hurting , the statistics are all over which show this to be true.
Thanks John: That was a very lengthy article (that could have been a eBook) about the history of Social Security (leaving out nothing except for what all the players ate for breakfast.) It was the best on the subject that I've ever read.
In an attempt to share, I posted a few passages that I thought were the most concise and relevant to the topic — without all the intricate details — to greatly shorten the article in an effort to make it more digestible for busy readers. The original article has about 39,225 words — whereas my "condensed version" only has about 4,779 words. But for those of you who have the time, patience and curiosity, I'd read the whole article.
My post: "History of the GOP's War on Social Security"
http://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2015/01/history-of-gops-war-on-social-sec...
Here's what the author and other business reporters miss on labor participation. In 1990, according to the IRS, some $92 billion were earned by Americans "off the books" (or unreported.) Today that figure is $2.1 trillion, enough to nearly erase the annual deficit. What has happened is--because of the internet--large swaths of citizens take early retirement and then advertise their skills and services on places like Craigslist or through their own website and pick up an additional $20k or more on their own terms and not reporting it as income. That is why the economy's retail and restaurant sales are more indicative of a minus five percent unemployment rate. Since the IRS was forced to cut employees by 10,000 in the past three years, they can't enforce these scofflaws even if they wanted.
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