Here is Why your Social Security Check will be Cut, if Democrats Lose the Mid-Term Elections!

by Staff January 4, 2018 3 Comments Business Money News Opinion Politics Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) (“Excerpts from the book titled, “The Fix This Time” @amazon.com/dp/B00MI3PD2M) I write this piece not to alarm you, but to sound the alarm! Republicans are betting on American workers’ and retirees’ disinterest in this topic, (read The Fix This Time!) up until the time the cuts actually happen in Social Security benefits and happen they will! The more I looked into the Social Security benefits program, the more disturbed I became with the inevitability, that Republicans are bent on destroying this program. This Congressman in his following “raw comments” will paint a picture for you that you will find disturbing, yet compelling, even if you have just a small bit of interest in your future and in “your money.”

We, as responsible citizens want to see the federal government, our representatives, do the right thing in keeping its promise to pay Social Security benefits to you, me and American workers who paid and are “still paying” into the Social Security trust fund through mandatory payroll taxes. Following are excerpts of a speech by Danny Lee “Dan” Burton, a Republican in the U. S. House of Representatives from Indiana’s 5th Congressional District. These comments were made back in 2007 by him and is a part of the Congressional record. He defines the looming crisis for us. Here are his unbridled comments:

“…Today’s Social Security is not sustainable and will implode. Social Security spending will exceed projected tax collections in 2017. These deficits will quickly balloon to alarming proportions. After adjusting for inflation, annual deficits will reach $67.8 billion in 2020, $266.5 billion in 2030, and $330.9 billion in 2035.”

…The year when Social Security begins to spend more than it takes in, 2017, is extremely important. From that point on, Social Security will require large and growing amounts of general revenue money in order to pay all of its promised benefits. Even though this money will technically come from cashing in the special issue bonds in the trust fund, the money to repay them will come from other tax collections or borrowing. The billions that go to Social Security each year will make it harder to find money for other government programs or require large and growing tax increases.”

A second important year is 2009. Starting in just 2 years, the annual Social Security surpluses that Congress has been borrowing and spending on other programs will begin to shrink. From that point on, Congress will have to find other sources to replace the money that it borrows from Social Security or shrink spending. By 2017, Congress will have about $100 billion less to spend annually. Compared to these two dates, 2041–the year that the Social Security trust fund runs out of its special issue bonds–has little importance. Even though the end of those bonds will require a 25 percent benefit reduction, Congress would have been paying over $300 billion a year, in 2007 dollars, to repay those bonds for about 7 years by the time the trust fund runs out. Congress will have to do this through some combination of other spending cuts, new taxes, or additional borrowing. These are the same choices Congress would face without the trust fund.”

You see, a federal government under Republican leadership that just borrowed $1.5 trillion to give corporations and the wealthy a tax cut will have great reluctance to borrow and continue to borrow money it owes Social Security recipients; money they actually looted in the past to give those same corporations and the wealthy tax cuts. They will rather cut those benefits as Mr. Trump and the Republican Congress just did with the COLA, the cost of living allowance (https://thyblackman.com/2017/12/11/tell-nanna-merry-xmas-trump-has-just-cut-her-social-security-check-5/).

There is no question all of us need to wake up to the reality of “current benefit cuts” in Social Security. So, I wrote the book, “The Fix This Time,” hoping, if you all “brought and read the book,” thus becoming as informed as I am…you would want to start taking immediate action. There is no way a Republican majority Congress with the debt the country is in, is going to pay $300 billion a year to keep Social Security afloat! Hello, they just showed that, by taking 5 percent of our Social Security benefits by cutting the COLA!

While Democrats, just as Hillary Clinton did, think they are going to win big in 2018, their Achilles heel is the same as was Clinton’s; the need of a clear and unambiguous job creation and stimulus plan that pushes back against globalization and trading that has resulted in the exportation of American jobs. And, we have yet, to see such a plan! Is just being anti-Trump enough? It wasn’t enough to put Mrs. Clinton in the White House. Therefore, you need to turnout for this election like you have never turned out before. These folks are not joking, they want all the money! So, you need to vote baby, vote. Share this article and wake up your friends and family members.

As the lyrics of the song by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes says, “Wake Up Everybody! No more backward thinkin’, Time for thinkin’ ahead, The world won’t get no better, if we just let it be. The world won’t get no better we gotta change it, yeah, just you and me.”

(A note to those who are purchasing “The Fix This Time.” You can download the book to your iPhone, personal computer or Kindle reader. You do not have to actually read the book.” There is a function from Kindle on the tool menu that allows the book to be read ALOUD to you. It is a stop and go feature which allows you to listen to the text of the book without having to set at a computer screen or look at your phone. Enjoy! )

Staff Writer; James Davis

This brother is a leading expert and consultant in Financial Analysis and Social Dynamics. He is a graduate of Florida A. and M. University(FAMU), a former stockbroker, and a human rights activist who resides in Sanford, Florida. He was awarded the prestigious Governor Haydon Burns Scholarship to attend FAMU and while at FAMU was awarded the first Martin Luther King Scholarship. He is the author of three books, among them is “The Fix This Time,” Boost Your Retirement Income! Simultaneously Create Jobs and Spur Consumer Demand (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MI3PD2M).

He can be reached through his blog @, (http://www.thefixthistime.com).

3 Comments

Douglas Loss says:

January 5, 2018 at 3:22 pm

You seem to be pointing your finger at Republican administrations and congresses exclusively; in my view the cause of the problem is totally non-partisan, as neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have made any meaningful efforts to address it. If anything, the Democrats were less interested in addressing it than the Republicans.

Having said that, your ideas about how to address it certainly seem worth considering. In the long term, I’d like to see both SS and Medicare transitioned from government-mandated entitlement systems to something more like universal 401K programs and HSAs, where individuals’ tax payments are put into individual, untouchable-by-the-government savings accounts that will be theirs to use when reaching retirement age.

It’s probably important to recognize that Social Security, when it was initially set up, had a qualifying age such that the average amount of time beneficiaries would collect it was only a few years. As the average life expectancy has increased over the decades, the qualifying age hasn’t increased equally (for political reasons–politicians hate to tell people that they can’t have something they’ve been promised earlier, even if it’s logically unassailable that keeping that promise is impossible in the long run).

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James Davis says:

January 5, 2018 at 1:27 pm

This is the answer to Your Comments (Please excuse the length of this reply – Didn’t see how I could shorten it and give you a complete answer)

Thank you for reading the article and commenting on it. It is always my pleasure to answer legitimate questions. I want my readers and supporters to understand what I am attempting to achieve; that of course is in part is to get them to buy the book and get more understanding so that we can be successful in our fight for our rights when it comes to Social Security. I also want people like you to understand my perspective. If you read Mr. Burton’s comments, notice he said this: “ Starting in just 2 years, the annual Social Security surpluses that Congress has been borrowing and spending on other programs will begin to shrink. From that point on, Congress will have to find other sources to replace the money that it borrows from Social Security or shrink spending. “

Now, had Congress not borrowed that money, the $3.0 trillion or more would still be sitting there in the Social Security trust fund drawing interest. You see Mr. Burton explains to you, that money was projected not to be depleted until 2041. However, they took the money to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses, to pay for wars, to balance budgets and a myriad of other things. Had past Republican administrations been honest brokers, as Mr. Trump had to be when he signed into law his 2017 tax cut for the wealthy and businesses, placing that $1.5 trillion of his administration’s spending on America’s credit card, the money would still be sitting there in the trust fund drawing interest. There would have been no need for him in his tax cut bill to cut the COLA ( cost of living allowance) because the money would have been there in the trust fund to pay for it. But, the money was not there! Prior Republican administrations starting with Reagan spent our trust fund money.

Because America finds itself in debt and the trust fund having been used up, it has to now scramble like any other debtor to find money to pay Baby Boomer retirees. Boomers did nothing to contribute to the debt that they are now being punished for by a Republican Congress, suggesting that they want to prematurely cut our benefits.

However, you are right when you say to address the long term problem of Social Security and Medicare, taxes do have to be raised. Here is the bottom line as I see it. Raising the level of income on which Social Security taxes can be charged will fix the Social Security system. Social Security taxes right now are charged on the first $106,800.00 of income. Raising that to $250,000.00 a year will easily buttress the trust fund. That is what should be done on the front end. On the back end, Congress should allow retiring seniors to have the option of taking 10 percent of their principal, if they desire, unencumbered by taxes. This of course, makes Social Security not just an entitlement program, but a useful contributor to growing the economy. Boomers are retiring at the rate of 10,000 per day.

For a retiring couple, who retires within 2 years of each other, this could mean a windfall on average of $80,000.00, coming into their household. The other 90 percent of their Social Security income is, then received in annuity payments the rest of their lives. Of course, that will easily drop $100 billion to $140 billion into the U. S. economy each year. In doing this, you put a floor under the economy which reduces recessionary dips.

Tax collections from the spending of this money by retiring seniors at both the state and federal level will increase, offsetting the cost of Social Security and also boost job creation. It is a known economic fact when you hand money directly to the consumer, that money turns over a minimal of 2 times. So, its really like dropping $150 billion to over $200 billion of stimulus into the economy each year. This of course will force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to control the inflationary side affects of this spending. Thus, we go back to what has been missing in this economy for the last ten years and that is normal interest rates. You then create jobs and lift the economy to the 3.0 to 4.0 percent GDP consistently.

“The Fix This Time,” goes on to explain that we have to not allow corporations, the wealthy and businesses, to export this new demand without some form of reciprocity. In other words, no country should be allowed to do what China is doing and that is consistently run TRADE DEFICITS YEAR AFTER YEAR OF OVER $300 BILLION. When countries are allowed to do this, you are essentially exporting jobs created by American spending and getting nothing in return. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MI3PD2M

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Douglas Loss says:

January 5, 2018 at 9:22 am

You can say what you want, but the fact can’t be ignored that both Social Security and Medicare are insolvent (the promised payouts exceed the taxes paid in). There are only three possible outcomes: increased taxes on taxpayers (us!) to cover the difference, reduced benefits to meet the available funds, or the collapse of the entire system. You can massage and spin things however you like, but at least one of those three things must happen. Most likely, there’ll be some combination of them–I won’t pretend to predict what that might be, though.

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