Screwed?

Bob Kerry writes,

Few if any candidates for federal office will tell you that as a consequence of current federal law, young Americans are being screwed in two life-changing ways.

First, under current law, every Social Security beneficiary under the age of 48 will have their promised benefits cut by a third. And second, every young person who works is contributing between $10,000 and $20,000 to the health care and retirement of those lucky Americans who are already drawing benefits under federal law.

In some ways the second screwing is worse than the first. Young workers do not have the defined benefit retirement programs commonly enjoyed by their grandparents, and if they do have health care through their jobs, their annual deductibles are probably greater than what their grandparents paid to have children and attend college.

...Third, recognize that we do not just need to fix Social Security so it is fair to all living generations. We need to agree on changes in Federal law that will ensure that all Americans have additional sources of non-employment income besides what they receive from the Federal Government.
If we do, the future of young Americans will become materially brighter. If we don’t, they will be doubly screwed.

Read more here.

Pyramid schemes, entitlement, and Social Security

Thomas Sowell writes in National Review about pyramid schemes, entitlements, and Social Security.

Inspector General Audit: 6.5 Million Active Social Security Numbers For People Aged 112 And Over

Does Social Security know when someone has died? Have you seen the report that came out this month:

A Social Security Administration Inspector General audit has discovered an astonishing fact: there are 6.5 million active social security numbers in existence for people aged 112 or over.

Senator Tom Carper, D-Del., the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, stated:

It is simply unacceptable that our nation’s database of Social Security numbers of supposedly living people includes more than six and a half million people who are older than 112 years of age, with a few thousand having birth dates from before the Civil War. Preventing agency errors by keeping track of who has died is a relatively simple problem that the government should pursue as a high priority.

The inspector general’s audit was dated March 4, 2015, and concluded that the SSA lacks necessary controls to annote death information of numberholders who exceed “maximum reasonable life expectancies.”

Some of the numbers were used to open fraudulent bank accounts, while thousands were used by illegal immigrants.

Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, stated the following:

Tens of thousands of these numbers are currently being used to report wages to the Social Security Administration and to the IRS. People are fraudulently, but successfully, applying for jobs and benefits with these numbers. Making sure Social Security cleans up its death master file to prevent future errors and fraud is a good government reform we can all agree on.

Read more here.
Thanks to Evelyn Zur

Do I need to organize seniors?

Yesterday I heard a local conservative talk radio host say, "I'd like to see Social Security and Medicare go the way of the dinosaurs." What??? Is this what conservatives believe?

It was the last minute of his show, but I still called to talk with him about his statement. He was still in the studio, but would not talk to me. The call screener gave me his email, and I emailed him asking him to explain his statement. He still has not replied. He is on again this evening. I will call him during his program, if he has not answered my email.