Trumps Presidency 2025

[Hongbit]

3 hours ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

No chance Jay-Z gave permission to use that song 

The king doesn’t need permission.  He takes what he wants.  Our laws don’t apply to him.   

[Tigerbomb13]

 

😵‍💫

Edited yesterday at 04:49 PM by Tigerbomb13
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[GalagaGuy]

Of course they had the room stacked with right wing media during Trump's rambling new conference so nobody could actually ask real questions.  

[Sports_Freak]

 

[Sports_Freak]

8 hours ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

Now it’s time to disappear homeless people. Gotta add another layer of cruelty here. 

Next it will be the disabled. And then the elderly, unless they can buy their way out of it.

Edited 23 hours ago by Sports_Freak

[Sports_Freak]

5 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

"fixing" SS is pretty easy - raise contribution limits - add another 6mo to the age for the max benefit, etc. Congress just has to be able feel the edge of the precipice before they are willing to act. You only have to bridge about 10-15 yrs until most of the Boomers are dead and the system will get a lot more solvent.

But there is a maximum monthly benefit. Raising that would defeat the purpose of making folks keep paying into it.

The better solution would to be raise the retirement age. Hugely unpopular, big time. But look at when SS started, the retirement age was 65. And life expectancy? Yeah, in the 60's.

https://www.ssa.gov/history/lifeexpect.html

Social Security wasn't designed to pay people for 20 to 30 years after retirement. And don't forget, both democrats and Republicans raiding the SS for their pet projects. When they absolutely knew millions of baby boomers would start retiring around 2010 or so. They KNEW and stole the $$ anyway.

[Tigermojo]

28 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

 

He's afraid the American people are going to Mussolini his ass and I'm shocked they haven't done it already. Tariffs are going to make America rich? We all know it's going to led to another Great Depression.

[Sports_Freak]

5 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

This is why it won't get pulled entirely or even close to entirely.  

 

Baby boomers are a huge voting block. It's a death sentence to any political party that tries to take SS away 100%. There may be a cut in benefits and they may raise the retirement age but they'll never eliminate SS.

[Sports_Freak]

1 minute ago, Tigermojo said:

He's afraid the American people are going to Mussolini his ass and I'm shocked they haven't done it already. Tariffs are going to make America rich? We all know it's going to led to another Great Depression.

I'm seeing threats on social media against him. That's really scary, people think they can't be found and dealt with? It takes a certain type of idiot to post their intentions. Actions speak louder than words.

[pfife]

6 hours ago, GalagaGuy said:

So Trump just said he's going to Russia on Friday to see Putin.  😬

I heard the meeting was in alaska.   Did it change or did he defecate the bed on that whole what country is alaska in thing?

[GalagaGuy]

5 minutes ago, pfife said:

I heard the meeting was in alaska.   Did it change or did he defecate the bed on that whole what country is alaska in thing?

That's the point, dude doesn't even know where he's going.  Either that or he's planning on returning Alaska to Vlad.  

[Tigermojo]

Alaska is too close to Kim Jong Un's nuke. He could take out both of his "friends" with one shot.

[Motown Bombers]

I'm pretty certain only Nancy Pelosi has the authority to call the National Guard to DC. 

[Tiger337]

3 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

But there is a maximum monthly benefit. Raising that would defeat the purpose of making folks keep paying into it.

The better solution would to be raise the retirement age. Hugely unpopular, big time. But look at when SS started, the retirement age was 65. And life expectancy? Yeah, in the 60's.

https://www.ssa.gov/history/lifeexpect.html

Social Security wasn't designed to pay people for 20 to 30 years after retirement. And don't forget, both democrats and Republicans raiding the SS for their pet projects. When they absolutely knew millions of baby boomers would start retiring around 2010 or so. They KNEW and stole the $$ anyway.

The problem is that even though people are living longer, they aren't necessarily healthier and more able to work.  People are being kept alive by drugs, but not always living well.  And they sure aren't doing anything to make us healthier.  They are currently doing the opposite.     

[gehringer_2]

21 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

The problem is that even though people are living longer, they aren't necessarily healthier and more able to work.  People are being kept alive by drugs, but not always living well.  And they sure aren't doing anything to make us healthier.  They are currently doing the opposite.     

this is true. We probably have more healthy active 80 yr olds than ever before but it's a dumb bell distribution where on the other side the majority are overweight with T2 diabetes, atherosclerosis and high blood pressure.

[oblong]

It’s a catch 22.  You told peoole to pay for something and they will get it back. I’m ready to get mine in 10 years and 37 days. 

[Sports_Freak]

2 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

The problem is that even though people are living longer, they aren't necessarily healthier and more able to work.  People are being kept alive by drugs, but not always living well.  And they sure aren't doing anything to make us healthier.  They are currently doing the opposite.     

Life expectancy is a very complicated issue. Back in the day, infant mortality really lowered the average life expectancy. They ended up looking at 21 year olds life expectancy. As infant mortality percent got lower, life expectancy in general grew. And medical advances, of course.

[pfife]

Sanitation technology is a huge reason the life expectancy increaseed dramatically. 

[gehringer_2]

1 minute ago, pfife said:

Sanitation technology is a huge reason the life expectancy increaseed dramatically. 

I'd go with sewers for the 19th century, anti-antibiotics for the 20th. 

[romad1]

the suicide rate among the young has got to be making a dent in the actuarial tables.   why suicidal?  because 0ld ****s keep telling them there is no goal line they can achieve. 

[chasfh]

23 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Interestingly, it's been discussed here that the SS 'trust fund' is really just a political fiction constructed to remove the taint of 'socialism', which made the original efforts to pass a Federalized old age pensions controversial even in FDR's day. But as it turns out, it has continued to be a useful political fiction because as Romad points out - there are a hundred million voters out there who believe it's their money held in trust and any politician who doesn't want to 'give it back' is going to be in deep ****.

It's that belief that makes it so sacrosanct as a program, but that doesn't mean they can;t privatize and force everyone to take their payments in crypto.

Social Security was always designed to be a wealth transfer from current taxpayers to non-taxpaying people in need, such as retired workers (or their survivors) and disabled people.

[chasfh]

22 hours ago, 1776 said:

Means testing has been discussed. I wouldn’t rule that out in the future. Just my opinion. 
For years there have been suggestions and/or solutions discussed, here and everywhere else. To date, nothing!

This would be an interesting 180 twist because the way SSI benefits work now, the higher income a worker has, the higher their SSI benefits will be, so people who are the most likely to have built retirement wealth through savings and investing are those cashing the highest Social Security checks.

[chasfh]

18 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

But there is a maximum monthly benefit. Raising that would defeat the purpose of making folks keep paying into it.

The better solution would to be raise the retirement age. Hugely unpopular, big time. But look at when SS started, the retirement age was 65. And life expectancy? Yeah, in the 60's.

https://www.ssa.gov/history/lifeexpect.html

Social Security wasn't designed to pay people for 20 to 30 years after retirement. And don't forget, both democrats and Republicans raiding the SS for their pet projects. When they absolutely knew millions of baby boomers would start retiring around 2010 or so. They KNEW and stole the $$ anyway.

Sure thing, raise the minimum age for benefits from 62 to 70. That way, instead of only 15% of people dying before they can start to collect, 25% of people can die before they can collect. That should save the program a couple of bucks.

[chasfh]

Do you believe it's only 2.7%? I don't. Not anymore. 

 

[Sports_Freak]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

Sure thing, raise the minimum age for benefits from 62 to 70. That way, instead of only 15% of people dying before they can start to collect, 25% of people can die before they can collect. That should save the program a couple of bucks.

Unless they can find a way to pay back all the money they "borrowed" from the fund, there needs to be something done. Raising the age wouldn't be for older folks now, just for 20 to 30 year olds, 40 years in the future. But cuts may still need to be made, I have no answers. But just raising the income cap is kinda unfair unless they raise the monthly maximum benefit. And that would defeat the purpose.