4 Social Security Changes Coming in 2011

The most glaring action in this change is that Social Security is now directly attached to the "government budget" if one could call it a budget (how much "Monopoly" money can you print and not be responsible for??).

The communists, progressives, democrats or whatever you want to call those who want everyone to live in a commune have spun this new SS tax relief as not being detrimental to the future of Social Security. This quote from the above article states clearly why it was done.

"The Social Security system's finances are not expected to be harmed because the trust fund will be reimbursed for the full amount of the tax break from the general fund of the Treasury. However, this change also means that the Social Security trust fund will no longer be completely funded directly by citizen contributions. "This pretty much ends the claim that Social Security is self-financing or that it doesn't contribute to the budget deficit," says Andrew Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration."

This puts Social Security into the context of the budget and hopefully for the communists, progressives, democrats or whatever, will thus take the away the desire of the American citizenry for a responsible government and a balanced budget. This continued type of activity is known to be detrimental to the Republic and will be used by the communists again by using more lies (propaganda) to deter budget cuts, stop the repeal and/or revisions to the health care fiasco and anything else they have done or want to put into place.

GOD BLESS

BOB of VA 12:06PM January 20, 2011

@ Very Disgusted: under current law your benefits are based on EARNINGS, not FICA. So the change to FICA won't affect your benefits...unless the benefit law is later changed. But yeah, benefit-law changes are probably coming anyway.

@ Bob: I have worked with many, many people who received various government benefits, including Social Security. And while I wouldn't say there are no problems with direct deposit, there are a whole lot fewer problems. F'rinstance, if you move and your paper check gets delivered to your old address, there are a bazillion nasty things that can happen to it, and it's a HUGE pain to get SSA to issue a replacement. I could give several other examples. Trust me, the odds are in your favor with direct deposit.

That, and it saves the government money. And I trust we all agree the government needs to save money where it makes sense to do so.

HeyMikey of GA 1:32AM January 20, 2011

I do not like the feeling of being FORCED to work until I am 66 to receive benefits. I and many others have planned to retire at 62 and we have LOST our right to choose that option.

Very disappointed in Ohio.

DMC of OH 11:05PM January 19, 2011

Re Bob's comment, a lawsuit about the retiring of paper checks seems a bit dinosaurish in this 21st Century. However, if those $2.5Trillion in IOU treasury bonds to the SS Trust are not honored then I would indeed agree that a class action movement might seem warranted, albeit ridiculously futile in considering the stacked deck.

But this article is the first thing I've read which implies that we as individuals will not be affected by the reduced rate of FICA for 2011. For sure, the general pool of taxes will need to cover the difference in SS's expenses for the reduced money SS will take in this year. Which in reality means that the SS Trust will get hundreds of billion$ more of IOU's via treasury bonds to make up that loss.

But I have yet to read that the 33% reduction in our "retirement contributions" (not "tax" because the money goes towards our individual SS accounts) won't result in our receiving lower monthly benefit payments once we retire.

If anyone buys into that notion, or that the reduced FICA is only for one year, then please contact me about a bridge I have for sale.

Very Disgusted of NJ 7:55AM January 19, 2011