As FAIR documented in an August 11 action alert, CNN‘s The Situation Room was featuring alarmist views on Social Security, particularly from the network’s political analyst David Gergen.
We know CNN has heard from activists;Wolf Blitzer’s email response was, “I am certain this subject isn’t going away.” Sure enough, the show was back at it on Friday (8/13/10)–though little had changed.
This time around, the guests were familiar CNN pundits Gergen and Gloria Borger. The problems began with Blitzer’s teaser for the segment: “Are politicians too scared though to try to save the program?”
The issue isn’t at all whether politicians are “scared”–the question should be whether they need to do anything at all right now.
Borger’s take was this:
People right now are really concerned about spending in this country. And everybody understands that in order to control the deficit you have to get these entitlement programs under control.
As has been noted repeatedly, Social Security has amassed a $2.5 trillion surplus over the past two decades. If there are serious concerns about the federal budget deficit, it is unclear how Social Security would be a major factor. As the Economic Policy Institute put it recently (8/13/10), Social Security is “emphatically not the cause of the federal governmentâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s long-term deficits, since it is prohibited from borrowing and must pay all benefits out of dedicated tax revenues and savings in its trust funds.”
Borger went on: “So the question is, what can you do to get spending on Social Security under control?” Thatwould seem to suggest that Borger thinks benefits that have been promised to workersâ┚¬”Âthat those workers have paid forâ┚¬”Âshould be cut.
Gergen echoed Borger’s points, lamenting the idea that politicians (particularly Democrats) will “promise not to touch Social Security, to defend Social Security as it is. If you do that, you can’t get the deficits under control.”
Gergen added that “there is a real unwillingness to come to grips with what the underlying issues are, how high the benefits are and how little taxes we’re paying in.” That is a strange way to describe a program with a massive surplus. Perhaps Gergen’s “we” is a reference to the wealthy; if the cap on earnings subject to the Social Security (FICA) tax were lifted, the additional revenues could go a long way toward shoring up Social Security’s long-term finances.
It’s doubtful that’s actually what he meant, but if CNN is going to keep covering Social Security, perhaps they should invite some experts on who could explain these issues to viewers?
Obama Put Social Security On The Table:
http://seaclearly.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/obama-put-social-security-on-the-table/
I read something about this the other day. Gergen claimed that the maximum paid under social security is $87,500. He is wrong the maximum is currently $106,800. What kind of an authority is this guy anyway.
According to Move-On.org the social security system will be able to pay its recipients until the year 2027.
My annual Social Security Statement clearly states “You currently pay 6.2% of your salary, up to $106,800 in Social Security taxes, and 1.45 % in Medicare taxes on your entire salary.” If we simply double that “cap”, everyone could stop worrying about it. I think there are some Republicans who want to keep us scared, because they have not given up on the unpopular idea of privatizing Social Security. This would be a true disaster for most of us, but great for a few Wall Street brokers .
I’m with above poster. When SS was passed, most people were not living into their 80 and 90s. So an adjustment is needed, I wouldn’t mind paying more SS tax. In fact raise the Medicare tax and give us a single payer system like the rest of the civilized world!
Even “Saint” Ronald Reagan did not even try to “reform” Social Security!
These ugly threats to Social Security and Medicare are RepubThug BS!
If Social Security and Medicare are “reformed” I will leave the United States!
Gray Panthers demands the elimination of this annual cap on taxable income which is currently $106,800. It is not fair that a CEO making millions of dollars a year pays the same amount of FICA taxes as a worker earning $106,800 or under annually. This cap on taxable income seems to be Social Security’s best kept secret.
Thom Hartmann claims that the cap on social security should be raised from the current $106,800. He feels that people making more than that should pay there fair share which means no limits on how much you make to pay into the system. I totally agree.
Social Security is the best funded federal program. As others have mentioned since 1983, 27 years, the trust fund has accumulated 2.5 trillion dollars in U.S. Treasury Bonds; in short, the Social Security system has helped to finance Republican deficits that have dramatically increased the national debt from under one trillion dollars when Jimmy Carter left off to over 11 trillion now. The Bush tax cuts for the rich have been paid for by surplus Social Security taxes. You could say that those surpluses have paid for the Bush war against Iraq, or the war in Afghanistan. In short as the surpluses have accumulated through almost three decades, the surpluses have been borrowed and used to finance Republican deficits. Social Security has not added to the deficits, it has paid for them.
Rats and bedbugs are much more of a problem than solving
the Social Security situation which currently has a $2.5 Trillion surplus.
Just apply the FICA tax to all earned income, and Social Security
is safe and sound until 2075. So says Paul Krugman who was
absolutley right from the beginning when he said the stimulus
was too small. What all those people who say they are worried
about Social Security are really worried about is having to pay
more income tax. So, relieve their worries. Let them pay more
FICA tax instead.
” And everybody understands that in order to control the deficit you have to get these entitlement programs under control. “, says Borger. Hello? SS is NOT an entitlement program. It’s an insurance program for our old age; one that we all pay into. Falsely characterizing SS as an ‘entitlement’ program in order to demonize it, then privatize it, is reprehensible and wrong. Borger’s argument is bogus and needs to be challenged. She’s busted!
People’s savings toward retirement, including social security, need to be protected. The current attempt to raid social security isn’t the first and probably won’t be the last. Tax rates do not need to be increased, rather, artificial caps need to be eliminated. Those that benefit the most from our economic system should pay the most tax. The benefit from social security paid to retirees should reflect their contributions to it.
Why allow the government to borrow money from social security, when it has not accounted for the debt accumulated from prosecuting two wars?
I insist that entitlements are NOT the problem. We are Globocop. What does that cost and why not make global-security a joint-country efffort? We have a corrupt, convoluted tax/economic system that does NOT reward merit and hardwork. Why not something like a flat-tax? I was a volunteere in Jerry Brown’s 3rd run for the presidency. I still have a copy of the 1/2 page flat-tax form. Close the loopholes!!! Quit focusing on entitlements and go after the real moey-suckers!!!! / Jean Clelland-Morin
Cut the (REAL) DEFICIT? Simply STOP the unConstitutional, Illegal, CRIMINAL Obamanible Bush WARS AND their BLOOD, Sweat and tears.
It appears that Gergen is really working for the government. As we all know, there is a plutocracy controlling the “elected” members of our government. They want to get their hands on every penny the people of this country are owed, including money for infrastructure, schools, libraries, environmental funds, etc. We are now watching Obama make the largest transfer of public funds, lands, properties,etc. to private people/corporations that I have ever seen. They use people like Gergen to set up the propaganda while transferring the money so that later the people will actually believe, in spite of the facts, that there really is no money. They did this with the infamous bank transfer, the BP cover up, the multiple ongoing oil wars that are completely unnecessary, illegal and grotesque. Oil is killing us and our planet. We should use that “standing army” (an anathema to the “founding fathers”) money to repair infrastructure, assist in the construction of homes for the poor, factories to make solar panels, wind turbines, monorails, etc., all of which would easily restore our economy, which was broken by runaway capitalism.
Joan…Broken by runaway capitalism?Who- what- where?I feel as if I am living in a twilight zone where the collapse of Fanny and freddy(Huge lib socialist give a way programs)never happened.Never caused the sub prime mortgage crisis .Are we still believing in the easter bunny that is the belief among libs that it was wall street that caused this mess.Get it right love,they are the vultures that repulse and come after to make money coming or going.They did not kill the pooch.Talk to Franks/Dodd/Shumman/Waters.I did .There lies will live with me forever.Don’t worry they said…. it is all funded(like SSecurity?)You should care more about the construction of homes for the poor they said.Then we had all the tarps and styms,bailouts(not exactly capitalism).Now they want to fund solar panels,wind turbines,monorails etc…News for you.If that looks profitable companies will spring up like corn.No need for government involvement.
Oil is killing us and our planet??????Oil is lifeblood that has created a better standard of living for…the world.Bull bulll bull it is killing us..Did I not just hear that the deep water horizon would devastate the east coast for a hundred years if the leak continued for a month(lib rags).Well it went a lot longer.Where is that oil?Where is that hundred years of devastation?Beaches look great.
Libs limit oil.End nuclear.Control and divy out the crazy earth mother nonesense till some people actually buy into it.Look at the global warming hoax.Gore gets rich as the world slips into the next ice age(and the data on that is a lot stronger than warming)Remember DDT?Now we find all in all most of the info calling it sooooo dangerous was not very good science.But in the meantime millions died of malaria in poor areas.So it is back cleaning the swamps.Remember this”The road to hell is paved with lib good intentions’.
Obama is giving back to private individuals/????You done fell in the rabbit hole and it looks like your staying!Obama is a thief of personal freedoms.Devoted to the collective, under the rule of his government.Nothing he has done has deviated one iota from that promise.
Lastly.No one is OWED anything.All we have is earned.If we are owed anything it is this.The government owes us the ability to make as much of ourselves(wealth)without their involvement in any way.Since they create nothing and all they are- is due to that which they TAKE from us they should step out of the way…shrink…vanish from our lives to as great extent as is possible.So that the private sector (which does everything better) can fix what government and her socialist massive spending and taxing ways can be obliterated.
Ps joan there is no money.We cant buy as a country- my old little red wagon.We have beggard our children and theirs and theirs .You libs have lost your credit card.We can not let you spend one more dime until we filthy capitalists go out and EARN it again.Then and only then WE who EARN it will talk to you about putting you on a very tight budget.
As to the article…..If Social security was awash in trillions and trillions of dollars people would still not feel safe.They are not feeling safe with government(thank god)telling them they will take good care of them.We have learned that is a lie.
Sorry to rain on the parade folks..but there is no trust fund. Your government has spent the money and issued IOU’s. There is no 2.5 trillion in cash sitting there. So with the amount of money going into this ponzi scheme dwindling, while the recipients are increasing there are two choices in the end – means testing, limiting benefits, etc. or inflating everything. We’ll probably see a combination of both.
To those who think it’s all the wars that are wasting money, in part you are correct. However as an overall percentage of the budget, the wars are much smaller in scope than medicare/social security/ and the general huge bureaucracy that is our government. We simply have too much of the economy reliant on government – either for employment or entitlements. Who is going to pay for it? It simply cannot be sustained. Think Rome.
You can raise taxes 100% and it will never pay off the debt. Funny how these progressives talk about money like it exists. Like Adolf Hitler moving divisions around on maps that no longer existed. The USA is flat out BROKE.
Interesting how someone here says SS is an insurance policy. It is not. And why should *i* be forced to pay into a system I know I will never get back what I paid in.
To those who said just raise FICA taxes…you are thinking in a linear fashion. Assuming you just raise taxes and the money just comes roaring in. You assume there will be workers paying in to this system. And you assume those with means will just sit there and pay it. I’ve got news for you folks – the people with means will shelter the taxes or avoid it. I fail how to see raising taxes will lower unemployment. Historically speaking, can you name an era of real prosperity that was a result of high taxation and big government?
Paul Krugman…another Keynesian that will be totally discredited once another round of stimulus fails. What would he be without the NY Times?
“Oil is killing us and our planet.”
Umm…without oil we’d all be dead. Any wonder the population EXPLODED when the oil age started?
Heres a hint – if we were cut off from oil, supermarkets would be empty in a week. We’d starve.
“We should use that “standing army” (an anathema to the “founding fathers”) money to repair infrastructure”
Agreed. Infrastructure improves the productive capacity of the economy. Yet the progressives are more concerned with union jobs and wealth transfer. What infrastructure was built with the stimulus money?
“assist in the construction of homes for the poor”
Wasn’t this called housing projects at one point? How would you manage that exactly? There are a lot of poor people. Oh yeah, this time the government will get it right.
“factories to make solar panels, wind turbines, monorails, etc., all of which would easily restore our economy”
Everything is so easy isn’t it? Just do this or that. Bam, easy and everyone goes back to the way things were. A little side info: To make solar panels, wind turbines, mono-rails takes a lot of rare earth elements. Where would you get these from? China owns about 97% of the market (mostly with home grown production). They recently rationed their exports. Did you know a Prius has about 40-60 pounds of these elements? One large wind turbine contains over 2 tons. Good luck even installing solar panel without some group suing you. What would you do about trucks, cars, etc? What would they run on? Electricity? How would it be produced? (note : solar and wind are NOT enough). Electric grid is shot – good luck upgrading that, you’d be sued every step of the way.
“which was broken by runaway capitalism.”
A few questions to ask yourself…
Wasn’t the latter half of the 19th century the era of “runaway capitalism”? Did we get richer or poorer?
Didn’t the government start Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
Didn’t the government start Medicare and Social Security?
What happened after our government severed the link to gold in 1971?
When you make something really really cheap, the following happens
(a) People save it and use it prudently
(b) People go buy more of it, and more and more and more, driving up the price or increasing consumption beyond natural means.
Apply above to money, debt, housing, food (obesity), education, health care. As yourself why things are why they are – and then go back and see if it’s a 100% runaway capitalism or if somehow, the government has its hand in the pot.
What was the Soviet Union economy broken by? Runaway ________ ?
Is China becoming more free market capitalistic? (a) yes (b) no
Who just passed Japan as the no. 2 economy?
Ok Brian Dunbar
Who the heck let you in here?You are talking a lot of sense sir.Word to the wise for you though.I have been hanging around this beat for a while now And you are not going to be admired for talking common sense.At least not here”.THEY”don’t -or won’t get it.Probably never will.(By the way I say things like ‘they”just to tweak them).
If you are not a tax and spend Lib… Obama love affair type, believing every sound coming from the right is wrong-even before you hear it -than you are quickly going to come under attack on these blogs.I hope you will stay around.First bit of horse sense Ive heard around these parts in some time.Well done
Hmmm . . . “common sense” conflated with absolute, total horseshit and paranoid libertarian gibberish . . . I bet you like it, numbnuts: it’s right up your alley and outta your ass.
There ya go again TIMN attacking me for only agreeing with something another blogger said.I would never call you a numbnuts who’s talking outta your ass.I might say there goes TIM he voted for OBAMA.Actually as it turns out though, that is a hell of a lot worse than saying you talk out your ass and other such nasty jabs
One thing you said actually has a bit of interest.So you hate libertarians as well?Do tell me what hateful things you feel regarding Dr Ron Paul.