Friday, February 06, 2015

'Toontime: Going Through the Motions

credit: Matt Wuerker
Wackydoodle axes:  Y'al get that hat at Garfinkles?
Righto, because until then they will be too busy trying to destroy Social Security, again!  The first hearings to declare a benefits crisis are scheduled next week in the Senate's Budget Committee. Right now the trust fund has 1.7 trillion surplus, and has had a surplus since 1984. Of course surpluses do not last forever if expenditures exceed receipts. In 2035 there will be just 2.1 workers for every benefit recipient. The system, one of the few long-term government programs that has actually worked well, can be shored up to prevent future insolvency--not by cutting benefits as the filthy rich Koch Brothers & the Handmaidens want, but by removing the cap on income subject to tax so even rich people pay into the system. The middle class could reciprocate by again raising the retirement age to 68 or 70.