OT---One party is proposing a 20% cut in Social Security

[davemotohead]

Alinsky, Obama's and Hillary's mentor :
Saul Alinsky was a dedicated Left-wing radical. He operated from the 1930s through 1972, when he died of a heart attack. He was a Chicago organizer. He gained financial support of a Leftist cleric in the Catholic Church. His connection with the Church is widely known. (http://bit.ly/CatholicsAndAlinsky" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).

Hillary Clinton wrote her bachelor’s degree thesis on him. You can read it here: http://bit.ly/HillaryThesis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. She was offered a job working for him, but she went to Yale Law School instead, where she met her husband.

Barack Obama was trained by Alinsky’s disciples when he was a community organizer in Chicago in the mid-to-late 1980s. He was supported by 20 Protestant churches in the area.

Alinsky was a revolutionary, but not a violent revolutionary. Unlike the Marxists, he thought violence will backfire. He was for wealth-redistribution through the federal government. He had no final plan for the post-revolutionary society. This was also a feature of Karl’s Marx, who never described how the Communist society would operate, or the socialist system that would precede it. But he believed in violence by the working classes.

[Gigharborvair]

Well said...

[davemotohead]

And to make Matters Worse :

The lawmaker House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi plans to name to a House intelligence committee received political contributions from Islamist groups named as unindicted co-conspirators of terrorist organizations and once gave a speech in which he said that the U.S. education system should be based on the Koran. Pelosi will name Democratic Indiana U.S. Rep. André Carson to the House’s Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, it was reported Tuesday. Carson will be the first Muslim to hold that position. He is one of two Muslims currently in Congress. Carson has raised eyebrows with some of his past political and religious remarks, and he’s received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign money from groups implicated in terrorism investigations. In a May 26, 2012 speech at the 37th Annual Islamic Circle of North America-Muslim American Society Convention in Hartford, Conn., Carson spoke about how Islamic teachings would improve the U.S. education system.
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Open your eyes 1949,,your guys are siding with the enemy! The Democrat Treachery never ends!

Do you want More 1949???

[BIGTWIN]

Does any of this NOT sound like what is happening to the United States? Scairy stuff going on here. On S.S. I hope to get it one day (i'm 56 now) but I'm not counting on it already. As for my kids getting it, no stinking way. I keep paying it but that's one of our "lots in life". I believe it's a throw away. I'm glad it helps some of the honest deserving people who paid into it at least.

[1949chevy]

My most uninformed 1949chevy,

Being a financial planner and estate planning consultant for 37 years, I take great issue with your facts. While not bothering to go into detail, you could not be more wrong on your tax numbers.....I MEAN WAY OFF !!. Go get another education before you quote tax facts.

I would not want you to be my financial planner if you do not even know that the 1st $5,000,000 is exempt ( that was back when I heard the liar hannity talk for nearly an hour saying that the little "mom and pop shops would not be able to pass their hard work gains to their heirs and not once mention the exemption). A lot of so called self perclaimed "financial planners" are in prison around here for greedy fraud....I think there was one in NY...that just wasn't right in the head or heart.

Like I said....not ONE time did hannity ever mention the $5,000,000 exemption.

Now...HERE ARE THE FACTS SO YOU MIGHT LEARN SOMETHING.

1. Straight from the IRS site ( link below so the folks can see what a idiot they hire when they hire some "financial planners".
You are not required in 2014 to file an estate tax form until the amount of estate taxable income exceeds ....$5,340,000.00.

"Most relatively simple estates (cash, publicly traded securities, small amounts of other easily valued assets, and no special deductions or elections, or jointly held property) do not require the filing of an estate tax return. A filing is required for estates with combined gross assets and prior taxable gifts exceeding $1,500,000 in 2004 - 2005; $2,000,000 in 2006 - 2008; $3,500,000 for decedents dying in 2009; and $5,000,000 or more for decedent's dying in 2010 and 2011 (note: there are special rules for decedents dying in 2010); $5,120,000 in 2012, $5,250,000 in 2013, $5,340,000 in 2014 and $5,430,000 in 2015."

http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Bus ... Estate-Tax

Again....would I hire you .....I don't think so....not enough holes in my head. You can blow smoke to the weak minded....but not me...sorry.

[atglass]

If I wanted America to fail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ8yE0W ... r_embedded

[thewolfe]

1949chevy - Do you think that the current 'business as usual' road that our country is going down now is sustainable in the long term? Seriously, ask yourself that. If you think that it is then you probably should have your head examined. I'm no die hard republican or democrat but I have a brain and can see what is happening. There will come a point when we are not able to keep piling debt on top of the monstrosity we already owe. That is when the whole thing falls apart and everybody will be hurting. Bad. This is not a scare tactic, it's reality. Democrats and republicans are both corrupt and both responsible for our current situation. Until we get these aholes out and get in people that actually serve Americans and not corporations, special interest groups, or whoever gives them money for relection to retain the power and wealth they so dearly crave then we will continue to have policies that don't benefit WORKING Americans. I get so sick of seeing people at the super market paying with food stamps then whip out their smart phones and driving off in newer cars. This is crazy! These people are not hurting and don't deserve assistance if they can afford these luxuries. Social security I think was a good idea initially but it really is a pyramid scheme that has been robbed from over the years. I'm 34 and don't expect it to be around by the time I retire so what do I do? Be a responsible adult and put a percentage of my hard earned dollars into a retirement account. This is what everybody should be doing. And guess what? No politicians can steal from my account over the years while I'm saving(but they will when I take it out!).

[davemotohead]

[64powerglide]

I read this a few days ago but who do you believe?? Read it & see what you think, I think it was written in 2008 because it refers to the Bush's. As a rule I don't pay much attention to politics, either way thay are out to get my money & I don't like any of them because they are a bunch of lying crooks who don't want to work for a living. Churches are the same, give me your money so I don't have to work for a living!! Just put your money right here in this plate so I can get a new Caddy & don't get me started on their tax free property.


Misleading language and myths have littered the debate over Social Security. Here are a few:

Myth: Social Security is a victim of the aging baby boom, reflected in the ratio of workers to retirees, which used to be 16 to 1, is now 3 to 1, and in 2030, will be 2 to 1.

Reality: Today's projected deficit has nothing to do with the size of the baby boom or worker to retiree ratios. The 16 to 1 ratio is a meaningless factoid, plucked from 1950, a year when Social Security was expanded to cover millions of new workers. The ratio never influenced policy in the slightest. It is the kind of ratio experienced by all pension plans, public and private at the start when few workers have yet qualified for benefits; the 2 to 1 ratio is meaningful and does translate into higher costs, but those costs were addressed decades ago. Congress has enacted ten significant Social Security bills since 1950. Every enactment has taken into account the baby boom, and each has left the program in long-run actuarial balance. The most recent enactment was in 1983, when the program was in balance through 2057 - the year the youngest boomers, those born in 1964, will turn 93. How social security went from a projected surplus through 2057, when most of the baby boom will be dead, to today's projected deficit involves a number of factors, mainly related to changes in assumptions about wage growth, productivity and disability rates. The change from surplus to deficit is totally unrelated to the number of baby boomers, as one would surmise. After all, no new baby boomers have been born since 1983.

Myth: Social Security is going bankrupt.

Reality: From all federal programs, Social Security has been singled out for alarmist claims about bankruptcy because it operates under the conservative principles of a balanced budget and long-range projections. Bankruptcy is a meaningless concept when applied to the federal government or any of its programs. It is instructive to note that the bankruptcy language would disappear instantly if Congress simply reinstated the authorization, present in the law from 1943 to 1950, to pay any shortfall in Social Security out of general revenue. For more info, click here.

Myth: Social Security is unworkable in the face of an aging population

Reality: Eliminating Social Security's projected deficit many decades away, is one of the easiest problems facing the nation. I propose a plan, which solves the deficit without benefit cuts, while raising extremely moderate taxes on just six percent of the workforce. Click here for more details. More fundamentally, our economy can support our elderly, the widespread demographic anxiety notwithstanding. One measure of the ability of a population to support its nonworkers is the total dependency ratio, which is simply the sum of those under age 20 plus those age 65 and over divided by those ages 20 to 64. The lower the ratio, the lighter the burden. The total dependency ratio in the United States was highest in 1965. It has declined substantially since then and is not projected to reach that level again until around 2078. Moreover, the composition of the dependency ratio has changed. There are now more elderly and fewer children in the mix. This is a positive development from the perspective of income support. Very few five year olds can support themselves; many 70 year olds can and do.

Myth: Social Security won't be around when younger workers retire.

Reality: All the hype about bankruptcy has caused many to believe they are likely to receive no benefits from Social Security. Even if no change in Social Security is enacted for the next 75 years, future retirees will still receive higher benefits, in real dollar terms, than their parents who retire today. After all, for the next 75 years and beyond, Social Security will continue to collect billions of dollars in income week in and week out.

Myth: Social Security is a bad deal for younger workers. They would do better with private accounts.

Reality: Social Security provides more benefits than private accounts would. In addition to retirement benefits, young workers and their families have valuable life and disability insurance right now. Social Security includes features, such as complete protection against inflation, not offered in the private market. Further, Social Security has substantially lower administrative costs -- returning more than 99 cents of every dollar collected -- than private accounts are projected to have. Moreover, Social Security permits parents of young workers to live independently from their adult children and frees those children to focus their assets and attention on their own children. For additional information, click here.

Myth: Social Security is unfair to African Americans.

Reality: Social Security is vitally important to African-Americans. Social Security is the only source of retirement income for four out of 10 African-Americans, aged 65 and over. Without Social Security, the poverty rate among African-American seniors would triple, from 21 to 60 percent.

It is true that because of their shorter life expectancies, African Americans collect Social Security's retirement benefits, on average, for a shorter period of time than their European-American counterparts. But Social Security also provides benefits in the event of disability or death. Because of their poorer health status, blacks are more likely to become disabled or die prematurely than their white counterparts.

While approximately 13 percent of the population is black, black children constitute 23 percent of the children receiving Social Security survivor benefits, and African Americans represent 17 percent of those receiving disability insurance. Moreover, Social Security's benefits are progressively structured. Because African Americans have lower median earnings than the population as a whole and have higher rates of unemployment, they receive disproportionately higher benefits from Social Security. Click here for more details.

Myth: Social Security is out-of-date, made for the Depression, and in need of modernization.

Reality: Social Security was enacted during the Depression, but it was not made for the Depression. The 1935 legislation provided that withholding from pay for Social Security would become effective on January 1, 1937. In order to give workers time to become insured, the 1935 enactment provided that monthly benefits were delayed, not due to begin for seven years after the 1935 enactment - until January 1, 1942, a date more than twelve years after the stock market crash of 1929. President Roosevelt recognized that to get immediate assistance to people in need – to alleviate the immediate suffering caused by the Depression - there was no alternative to mean tested welfare. But for the long term – once the Depression was history and the economic health of the country was restored – the President wanted a system of insurance in place to guarantee for posterity that every American would have a reliable, stable source of income from which they could draw in old age (Chapter 4 of The Battle for Social Security includes a lengthy discussion explaining the difference between welfare and social insurance). President Roosevelt's vision is as relevant and important today as it was then: As long as people are dependent on wages, Social Security is necessary. In a world where the private pension system is in trouble, and where savings are at their lowest rate since the 1930s, Social Security's rock solid guarantee of a floor of protection in retirement is more necessary than ever.

Myth: The President's private account proposal, allowing stock market returns, is designed to save Social Security.

Reality: If the issue were simply one of stock market returns, Social Security could be permitted to invest its reserves in the stock market. The issue is one of ideology, not investment strategy. Social Security is a wage-replacement program based on the insurance principle of pooled risk. Private accounts are private savings. Both can provide income in old age, but private accounts concentrate the risk while Social Security spreads it. The President's grandfather, Prescott Bush, who once remarked, "The only man I truly hated lies buried in Hyde Park," considered Franklin Roosevelt a traitor to his class. Roosevelt prevented his wealthy counterparts from saving for retirement solely on their own and instead forced them to pool a portion of their incomes with the rest of the population. The President appears determined to undo the work of his grandfather's nemesis. We should not allow him to use scare tactics and glib myths to undermine what remains the most successful domestic program in history.

[Gigharborvair]

1949, let's be honest.... You're not capable of logically competent thought. Yes the federal exemption is currently over $5M but you're example of a $20M estate resulting in a net 16M net after tax is idiotic. Here is real life and the way estates are ruined....family businesses.

A typical estate starts out at $20m when the last surviving spouse dies. (CURRENTLY THERE IS PORTABILITY FOR A MARRIED 2nd SPOUSE AT DEATH ALLOWING HIM/HER TO ALSO USE THE FIRST SPOUSE'S EXEMPTION AS WELL.... NOW OVER $10.5 M-- that's got to drive you nuts!

Anyway, a 20M estate files form 706, takes the 5M exemption and has a 15M taxable estate subject to 45% ( not 28 ). That's roughly $7.25 million dollars due the IRS within 9 months of death.

Now the family doesn't carry around that kind of liquidity so they have to sell assets to raise cash. And there are jackasses like you vulturing around ...everyone knows the family has to sell the south 40 so on a "forced sale ", the family gets 75 cents on the dollar. Guess what.... You've got to sell $10m of property to raise the IRS'S $7.25M.

What's left.... Well you would say $5M, but in fact, this is a true story about a very successful 3rd generation dairy farm operation in Washington state. 3 families all working on the farm ... Their livelyhood destroyed. they came to us after gramps died ( after the fact ), and there was nothing we could do except help them sell cows, equipment and property to raise your stinkin' harmless? estate tax. There is much more to this story that would make you sick, as is the case with most of your "small businesses" you talked about condescendingly, but you're not intelligent enough to comprehend their plight.

AND YOU WANT THEM TO GO THROUGH THIS AT THE DEATH OF EACH GENERATION? GO PLAY WITH YOURSELF.
( I'd suggest another activity but this is family friendly )

Respectfully (only to all other authors on this forum),

Robert H. Sullivan CLU, ChFC, AAMS

[atglass]

Seems to me, this describes 1949chevy to a t.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot

Useful Idiots
Thomas Sowell | May 20, 2003
Thomas Sowell
Share on Facebook 21 22 SHARES

The term "useful idiots" has been attributed to Lenin, as a description of those mindless people in the Western democracies who would always find ways to excuse whatever the Soviet Union did. Columnist Mona Charen's new book Useful Idiots shows that such people are still with us.

Long after the Soviet Union's horrors had become too widely known around the world for their sympathizers in the West to be able to get away with whitewashing the USSR, new Communist dictatorships arose to become the new objects of the affections of the Western intelligentsia and of like-minded people in the media and in politics.

As Mona Charen's book <read book review> makes painfully clear, this usually happened in a pattern that was repeated again and again, with the same useful idiots saying the same kinds of things again and again. She spells this out and names names, quoting Peter Jennings, Jesse Jackson, Anthony Lewis, Ted Kennedy, Ted Turner and a long list of others.

The founding of the Castro dictatorship in Cuba set the pattern that was followed later in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Grenada. By initially concealing the fact that he was a Communist, and having some non-Communists around him as window dressing, Fidel Castro was able to play the role of a popular liberator, out to end oppression, hold free elections, and do all sorts of good things for "the people."

The useful idiots in the United States and other Western democracies ate it up. Many still do, to this very moment.

Once in power, Castro tolerated no opposition, held no free elections, and established a police state that made the previous dictators look like amateurs. Those who spoke out against what was happening were jailed or executed. So were those who tried to flee the country.

Now that the mask of liberator was no longer necessary, Castro revealed that he was -- and always had been -- a Communist, despite useful idiots who claimed that it was American hostility which drove him into the arms of the Soviet Union.

Not only was Castro part of the Soviet bloc from day one, he made Cuba the first Soviet military base in the Western Hemisphere and supplied Cuban troops to go help other Communists to gain and hold power in Africa.

How did the useful idiots see all this? In addition to saying that it was all the fault of the United States, because of American hostility to Castro, they said that the Cuban people had a right to live under whatever form of government they wanted, whether or not Americans liked or disliked that kind of government. Eleanor Clift of Newsweek even said that she was not going to criticize the Cubans' "lifestyle."

It never seemed to occur to these apologists that the Cuban people were not allowed to choose anything. They did what they were told, if they wanted to live. The fact that tens of thousands of them tried to flee the island at the risk of their lives, whether from drowning at sea or being shot by the Castro regime, never made a dent in the rosy vision of the Cuban dictatorship held by many in the media, in politics and among the intelligentsia.

With minor variations, this same pattern reappeared with the later emergence of other Castro-like movements and regimes in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Grenada. Mona Charen's book spells it all out with quotes from the useful idiots themselves.

Some of their gushing praises of brutal dictators simply have to be seen to be believed. Nor was this infatuation with Stalinist oppression limited to the Western Hemisphere. Some gushed over the mass murdering Mao regime in China and even the consummate bizarre evil in North Korea.

The collapse of the Soviet bloc has now made it clear that these useful idiots were not pro-Communist. They were and still are anti-American. They have contempt for the values of the American people and the principles on which this country was founded and built.

They are ready to give a sympathetic hearing to our enemies around the world, whether those enemies are Communists or Islamic fundamentalists or whatever. Mona Charen's Useful Idiots spells it all out, citing chapter and verse.

[Nickshu]

One of my favorite social commentary clips from the Simpsons:

http://dai.ly/xm9sv9" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[davemotohead]

A reminder for those who forgot or for many that didn't know. Here is what happened on January 1, 2015
Top Medicare tax went from 1.45% to 2.35%
Top Income tax bracket went from 35% to 39.6%
Top Income payroll tax went from 37.4% to 52.2%
Capital Gains tax went from 15% to 28%
Dividends tax went from 15% to 39.6%
Estate tax went from 0% to 55%
Remember this fact:
These taxes were all passed only with democrat votes, no republicans (conservative or RINO) voted for these taxes. These taxes were all passed under the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

[Gigharborvair]

Oh, I feel so much better !

[Nickshu]

Dave don't forget the additional 3.8% Medicare investment income tax on top of that capital gains. And limits on HSA's that go into effect soon. It's amazing how many hidden taxes were in the bill. Now I lost my health insurance because of the ACA and my new plan costs over 2x more per month for less coverage. Soooo how am I supposed to cover my "deductible gap" when it exceeds my legally allowed HSA contribution? That's just plain stupid.

-Sent from my Galaxy s5 using Tapatalk

[1949chevy]

Do not let the government stop Social Security. You guys need to know when you are at retirement age that might be all the money you will have. That's all I live on, my wife is almost 59 & i'm almost 71 & she has been a housewife & has no income & we have been living on what I get since 2002. I worked from the age of 14 for 44 years & my medicare which I pay $104.90 a month is saving my ass. I just had a Colonoscopy & Endoscopy & the bill was over $4,000 & I had to pay out of pocket around $400.00. You think SS is a waste of money you had better think again. You younger guys have no idea what is going to happen to you healthwise as you get older. I know a lot of you probably make enough money that you don't have to worry about the future but there are millions like me that depend on what we paid for all these years. Invest in your future & beef up the Social Security System, it's a lifesaver!!!!! By the way I got my first 2015 SS check today, $1,728.00 which ain't to bad for sitting on my butt. Just think about what you would do if something happened tomorrow & you couldn't work anymore, how are the basic bills going to be paid & where is food money coming from ect..

Well put Powerglide...

some folks think that by listening to millionaires spue their BS on radio/tv...they will become millionaires too, you know...heck with paying taxes, thats for the poor...and of course, they could never become disabled like my girlfriend did when she was 35 years old...she took a $26,000.00/ year cut in income and her one medication she has to take is over $5,000.00 a month!!!...yeah, if you listen to republicans...she is scamming disablity SS. She tried to stay with the company and went from an engineer and applied for ticket take up person ( min wage almost) and they still would not transfer her to this job. She was with this firm for nearly 17 years and a department head. This is not heritage foundation/fox bs...this is real and true.