Cutting social security is the surest way of cutting their own throats. If they need a knife, I'd be happy to sent one.
At age 87, I've been receiving S.S. since I retired. That's 22 years and I paid into it much longer than that. Thanks to my wife's splendid career we don't need S.S. for our survival. Instead, it goes to scholarships and numerous charities. If that A-hole Musk had a modicum of empathy, colleges would be free and no one would be in the streets without food and shelter.
I don't think college should be free, but it definitely should be affordable - without going into life long debt. The reason I say that is because people don't value what they get for free, but when you pay for something, you always want to get your money's worth. Too many kids, whose college expenses are fully paid, go to college to party and avoid having to get a job.
I agree, largely, with your comments. You may be right but I have a different experience, probably well south of the party schools. I attended a small state college in the Minnesota town in which I grew up. Despite a rather mundane curriculum, I went on to grad school and had a good career until I retired. My wife and I contribute to - and host - a number of scholarships at my alma mater. Initially, our contributions were close to the tuition expense. Now, that expense exceeds what we can afford. Over the years we have met, or received communication from, quite a number of recipients, all very grateful for what help we could provide, and outlining their future plans, some of which brought tears to our eyes.
I think that donations and need could be balanced to reduce or prevent the responses you mentioned.
My wife and I are great-grandparents, with children in mid-career, grand-children of college age, and a great-grandchild barely a year old. These, and others of their age, will have to shoulder the future burdens of society and of the world in the future. It is up to all of us to provide them with the tools they need.
Trump doesn't really want to kill Social Security, rather he wants to privatize it. Why? Because there is about $2.5 trillion in the Social Security trust fund that cannot be touched by private investors. Banks and private investors salivate every time they think about a windfall of $2.5 trillion combined with a guaranteed income stream from every tax payer in the nation.
No one in his right mind would want to kill a cash cow like Social Security when it could be used by private interests for fees and high payoff (high risk) gambling.
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history." ---Dwight D. Eisenhower
Americans have little, none, or mistaken understanding of the role of government in their lives. Put that to the our poor public education system. No appreciation for the rights and privileges we enjoy, most being unheard of by a majority of planet. Instead of providing general knowledge that every citizen should have of government fundamentals (Three Branches, co-equal), the teaching profession must be prepared for the role of social worker, disciplinarian, et al. People simply don't appreciate how fragile the system is that has enabled us to be stupid, selfish, lazy. America has long needed a good civics lesson!
I wish. But that's why our econ overlords did this slowly to us, like frogs starting in in cool water in a pot on the stove. See my main entry for the basics. Labor unions and small farms are just about gone. The $ dominant techie libertarian anarcho-capitalists now allied with the Rs consider Ike merely another passe' supporter of government by and for inferiors.
What is confusing to most folks is that Social Security, like almost all government-run pension programs, is a "pay as you go" scheme. The benefits you receive from Social Security when you retire are not paid for out of taxes you paid while you were working. These benefits are paid for by taxes on other people who are still working and not yet retired. Likewise, the taxes you pay to support Social Security while you are working do not go to pay for your eventual retirement. They pay for benefits to folks older than you who are already retired. What you get in eventual benefits does not depend on what you paid into the plan; your benefits depend upon what other people will be paying into the plan. The system works so long as there are more people working and paying taxes than there are retired and receiving benefits. The slightest glitch can wreak the scheme. The Muskrat wants to replace (as President George W. Bush wanted to replace) the existing Social Security scheme with something more like the 401(k) plans offered by many employers. He wants to divert what you currently pay in Social Security taxes into investments of the kind used in 401(k) plans, so that your payments will eventually come back to you as a future benefit. What you get in eventual benefits will depend only on what you paid into the plan. But this cuts off the revenue that is supporting the benefits currently being paid to retirees, who dutifully paid their taxes to support earlier retirees with the expectation that you would pay your taxes to support them. The first generation of Social Security benefit recipients, who did NOT pay taxes to support the system, are now long dead. So what was done back in the 1930's to establish Social Security cannot ever be undone without imperiling and impoverishing at least one and likely two generations of current retirees and those anticipating retirement in a few decades. So the Muskrat is trying to steal your future.
We are "barking up the wrong tree". Congress needs to do its job and assert the considerable power granted to it in the constitution. We have destructive children on the loose and the parents are oblivious. Congress is afraid of losing their job if daring to cross Trump (Musk)--they need to be more afraid of losing their job at the ballot box.
Rump said he wouldn't touch social security? He also said he would eliminate pay for play politics. I won't get tired of writing that I laughed the first time I heard rump say it but I gotta wonder how many fools believe any thing he says. His lips have moved more than any other politician!!!
The dogmas of the right wing and corporate economic Social Darwinists are out in the open.
Centered in the Chicago School of Economics, little more than anti-New Deal, and now dominant. The 1st hint of what they were up to was the '71 Powell Memo, fully detailed in Project 2025. Starting in the late '70s, the Dem party was taken over by neolibs--supporters of an econ system that defines away devastation of human communities and ecosystems as externalities.
The uber right shift of the Rs purged any hint of concern about the common good. They allied with the Christofascists and their gospel of prosperity (wealth) which had begun as a '50s business alliance with conservative ministers. They organized slowly but surely, learning how to win elections. Among their 1st targets was Jim Hightower.
The last two decades saw the rise of the very $ powerful Silicon Valley right wing libertarians, also called anarcho-capitalists. They disdain anything egalitarian as merely giving inferiors what they don't deserve. They hate government for its social engineering; everyone should be responsible for their own individual successes or live with their lack of talent. The best, proven by their economic dominance and/or family, must rule. They consider themselves the greatest example of why private enterprise does everything better than clumsy, woke-encrusted, passe' government.
So what really, really annoys them is Social Security. It's a New Deal leftover. And not only does it reward failure, it's proof of government efficiency.
how can these mad men be stopped ?? you know who had better get a back bone and do their job before it's to late. I'm on ss and 91yrs old but I worry for my kids and grand kids.
Cutting social security is the surest way of cutting their own throats. If they need a knife, I'd be happy to sent one.
At age 87, I've been receiving S.S. since I retired. That's 22 years and I paid into it much longer than that. Thanks to my wife's splendid career we don't need S.S. for our survival. Instead, it goes to scholarships and numerous charities. If that A-hole Musk had a modicum of empathy, colleges would be free and no one would be in the streets without food and shelter.
I don't think college should be free, but it definitely should be affordable - without going into life long debt. The reason I say that is because people don't value what they get for free, but when you pay for something, you always want to get your money's worth. Too many kids, whose college expenses are fully paid, go to college to party and avoid having to get a job.
WRKnight -
I agree, largely, with your comments. You may be right but I have a different experience, probably well south of the party schools. I attended a small state college in the Minnesota town in which I grew up. Despite a rather mundane curriculum, I went on to grad school and had a good career until I retired. My wife and I contribute to - and host - a number of scholarships at my alma mater. Initially, our contributions were close to the tuition expense. Now, that expense exceeds what we can afford. Over the years we have met, or received communication from, quite a number of recipients, all very grateful for what help we could provide, and outlining their future plans, some of which brought tears to our eyes.
I think that donations and need could be balanced to reduce or prevent the responses you mentioned.
My wife and I are great-grandparents, with children in mid-career, grand-children of college age, and a great-grandchild barely a year old. These, and others of their age, will have to shoulder the future burdens of society and of the world in the future. It is up to all of us to provide them with the tools they need.
Robert
Donald and Elong have no empathy of any kind. Not even a modicum.
Trump doesn't really want to kill Social Security, rather he wants to privatize it. Why? Because there is about $2.5 trillion in the Social Security trust fund that cannot be touched by private investors. Banks and private investors salivate every time they think about a windfall of $2.5 trillion combined with a guaranteed income stream from every tax payer in the nation.
No one in his right mind would want to kill a cash cow like Social Security when it could be used by private interests for fees and high payoff (high risk) gambling.
The key phrase you used here is “No one in his right mind.” Trump in a nutshell.
True, but cold comfort for those of us about to be milked.
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history." ---Dwight D. Eisenhower
Americans have little, none, or mistaken understanding of the role of government in their lives. Put that to the our poor public education system. No appreciation for the rights and privileges we enjoy, most being unheard of by a majority of planet. Instead of providing general knowledge that every citizen should have of government fundamentals (Three Branches, co-equal), the teaching profession must be prepared for the role of social worker, disciplinarian, et al. People simply don't appreciate how fragile the system is that has enabled us to be stupid, selfish, lazy. America has long needed a good civics lesson!
I wish. But that's why our econ overlords did this slowly to us, like frogs starting in in cool water in a pot on the stove. See my main entry for the basics. Labor unions and small farms are just about gone. The $ dominant techie libertarian anarcho-capitalists now allied with the Rs consider Ike merely another passe' supporter of government by and for inferiors.
What is confusing to most folks is that Social Security, like almost all government-run pension programs, is a "pay as you go" scheme. The benefits you receive from Social Security when you retire are not paid for out of taxes you paid while you were working. These benefits are paid for by taxes on other people who are still working and not yet retired. Likewise, the taxes you pay to support Social Security while you are working do not go to pay for your eventual retirement. They pay for benefits to folks older than you who are already retired. What you get in eventual benefits does not depend on what you paid into the plan; your benefits depend upon what other people will be paying into the plan. The system works so long as there are more people working and paying taxes than there are retired and receiving benefits. The slightest glitch can wreak the scheme. The Muskrat wants to replace (as President George W. Bush wanted to replace) the existing Social Security scheme with something more like the 401(k) plans offered by many employers. He wants to divert what you currently pay in Social Security taxes into investments of the kind used in 401(k) plans, so that your payments will eventually come back to you as a future benefit. What you get in eventual benefits will depend only on what you paid into the plan. But this cuts off the revenue that is supporting the benefits currently being paid to retirees, who dutifully paid their taxes to support earlier retirees with the expectation that you would pay your taxes to support them. The first generation of Social Security benefit recipients, who did NOT pay taxes to support the system, are now long dead. So what was done back in the 1930's to establish Social Security cannot ever be undone without imperiling and impoverishing at least one and likely two generations of current retirees and those anticipating retirement in a few decades. So the Muskrat is trying to steal your future.
Maybe as a small warning, yesterday, Wednesday, my social security was deposit 12 hours later than usual.
Scary!!
I have never observed a person who would rather tell lies more than tell the truth than Donald J. Trump.
Lying is one of the most direct ways to act dishonestly.
I like the quotes below ;
"when Donald J. Trump tells the truth. it by accident".
Unknown
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Nazi, Joseph Goebbels
"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
Albert Einstein
“If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.”
Unknown
Mike
We are "barking up the wrong tree". Congress needs to do its job and assert the considerable power granted to it in the constitution. We have destructive children on the loose and the parents are oblivious. Congress is afraid of losing their job if daring to cross Trump (Musk)--they need to be more afraid of losing their job at the ballot box.
WHAT DO WE DO TO STOP TRUMP/MUSK??? HELP!!!
WHAT DO WE DO TO STOP TRUMP/MUSK???? HELP!!!!
Rump said he wouldn't touch social security? He also said he would eliminate pay for play politics. I won't get tired of writing that I laughed the first time I heard rump say it but I gotta wonder how many fools believe any thing he says. His lips have moved more than any other politician!!!
The dogmas of the right wing and corporate economic Social Darwinists are out in the open.
Centered in the Chicago School of Economics, little more than anti-New Deal, and now dominant. The 1st hint of what they were up to was the '71 Powell Memo, fully detailed in Project 2025. Starting in the late '70s, the Dem party was taken over by neolibs--supporters of an econ system that defines away devastation of human communities and ecosystems as externalities.
The uber right shift of the Rs purged any hint of concern about the common good. They allied with the Christofascists and their gospel of prosperity (wealth) which had begun as a '50s business alliance with conservative ministers. They organized slowly but surely, learning how to win elections. Among their 1st targets was Jim Hightower.
The last two decades saw the rise of the very $ powerful Silicon Valley right wing libertarians, also called anarcho-capitalists. They disdain anything egalitarian as merely giving inferiors what they don't deserve. They hate government for its social engineering; everyone should be responsible for their own individual successes or live with their lack of talent. The best, proven by their economic dominance and/or family, must rule. They consider themselves the greatest example of why private enterprise does everything better than clumsy, woke-encrusted, passe' government.
So what really, really annoys them is Social Security. It's a New Deal leftover. And not only does it reward failure, it's proof of government efficiency.
They touch social security and the pitchforks will be out.
Thanks for more warnings, but now tell us what we can do to oppose their plans to wreck Social Security!
OMG! I am still trying to let my fear go, but...this is quite frightening. Much appreciation for keeping your finger on the pulse.
Tyrant Trump shows his true colors by attacking the very program that sustain his supporters.
Wake up folks(especially when you vote)he just declared war against senior citizens.
how can these mad men be stopped ?? you know who had better get a back bone and do their job before it's to late. I'm on ss and 91yrs old but I worry for my kids and grand kids.