Social Security Keeps 20 Million Americans Out Of Poverty, Report Finds

[kpete]

Source: Huffington Post

THIRD WORLD AMERICA

Social Security Keeps 20 Million Americans Out Of Poverty, Report Finds

As Social Security approaches its 75th anniversary on Saturday, the program is playing an especially vital role in reducing poverty across America during the worst economic crisis since the Great Recession.

If benefits were to be significantly cut, 19.8 million more Americans would be thrust in poverty, according to a recent report http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3260&emailView=1 by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In addition to supporting the elderly, Social Security is currently keeping more than 1 million children and more than 5 million adults below the age of 65 above the poverty line.

Cuts to Social Security would be especially devastating for older women, the report shows. While 11.9 percent of women over the age of 65 are currently below the poverty line, nearly half of them would be poor if they no longer received benefits.

Veronica Daniels, 62, of Houston, Texas, says a reduction in her Social Security benefits would be calamitous. An engineer with over 37 years of experience, Daniels lost her job in 2007 and has not been able to find steady work since. After blowing through most of her savings on a major surgery and dental emergency without the help of health insurance, she was forced to start collecting Social Security early to stay afloat.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/13/social-security-keeps-20_n_681595.html

[Demeter]

1. Well, Then. That's Great! Cut Away, You Bastards. I Dare You

I double dare you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrkwgTBrW78

[Downwinder]

3. Send me a euthanasia pill before you cut. I don't care to starve.

[jwirr]

6. Absolutely, because everyone of those people who are presently

on Social Security have family that care about them also so the number who are in favor of social security is much higher than 20mil.

[liberal N proud]

2. We can't allow that

Poverty for all!




:sarcasm: (GOP Think)

[MannyGoldstein]

4. Unless we work quickly to stop it, cuts are afoot

If you saw the astonishing video of Alan Simpson lying a fast and furious as he could, you'd know this will not end well.

[defendandprotect]

12. Thanks to Obama . . . destruction of Social Security is afoot -- !!

And seems that seniors aren't even organized/united -- except thru AARP

which is an insurance company!!

And, Olberman and Maddow are barely discussing this -- Schultz began to pick it up

the other day a bit!!

[No Elephants]

28. We have a few Democratic commentators in the media and many, many Republican ones.

None representing the public, though. Not since Bill Moyers retired--or whatever made him stop broadcasting.

Shultz and Jon Stewart break ranks more than the other Democratic commentators who have shows, but not often--and Stewart is a comedian.

[defendandprotect]

34. Schultz, Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, Maddow, Olbermann ....

understand some like Ratigan?

But, I've been mystified as to why GE???/MSNBC started to go liberal as we moved

towards '08 elections -- still doesn't make any sense to me.

But, think Jon Stewart was so strong at the time that they wanted to compete with him --

moving viewers away -- and if a Dem president came along, tha tnew pres would be

buttering their military bread???

Schultz is the strongest of them -- and he has at least touched the "Cat Food Commission"

re Obama's attack on Social Security/Medicare -- didn't notice anything from Olbermann

or Maddow yet???

[ck4829]

5. That's no small amount. K&R.

[Frisbee]

7. Sounds like Veronica Daniels is the poster child...

not only for the good Social Security does, but for the need for a real national health care system. Seems like she did things right, but because of things beyond her control, she's one step away from homelessness. The article doesn't say, but she was an engineer in her late 50's who lost her job. Wanna bet it was shipped overseas. When will all these assholes who support the right wing realize "there but for the grace of God go I."

[Downwinder]

8. Without S.S. this whole County would go down the tubes.

S.S. is the only thing keeping it afloat.

[russspeakeasy]

9. Watch the dems cave in 9-8-7-6-5-4

It's just a matter of time....Oh, they will piss all over
themselves denying it, but they are too fuckin weak to do
anything about it...

[Xicano]

20. Weak? I beg to differ...

They ain't weak, they're part of the rich man's club. They are just as bought off by the rich as the repubs are, so they will only be doing what they were paid to do. The only thing is they just have to try and make it look good to those of us who they claim to represent but don't.

By the way welcome to the DU russpeakeasy. :hi:


Peace,
Xicano

[defendandprotect]

10. Obviously, that's why Social Security/Medicare need to be destroyed ...

From what I hear, the checks should be double what they are --

especially considering that everyone's $1 bill is worth .50 cents post-W Bush!!

[damntexdem]

11. And many more further above the poverty line.

And for all, one leg of the "three-legged stool" of retirement income, along with savings and pensions -- and so much more important with the decline of the latter.

And for many who were of the working poor, the first time in their lives to have a reliable income source upon which to base their plans for their futures.

[kestrel91316]

13. I can hear the freeper heads exploding and the endless shrieks about

20 million worthless freeloading welfare cheats.

[harun]

14. And yet Bernanke and his pals want it eliminated. No one who wants it eliminated

is fit for Public Service IMHO.

[No Elephants]

30. Who re-appointed Bernanke, originally a Dummya appointee? And how did Congress vote on his re-ap

pointment?

Who conceived of, created and staffed the cat food commission?

[Demeter]

35. Shh!

(Don't let the Immoderators hear you!)

[rfranklin]

15. There is no problem with Social Security...

Under Reagan, the amount withheld for Social Security was doubled to account for the baby boomers. (I remember because the increase put a big dent in my meager paycheck.) As fast as they collected it, the Reaganites spent it on useless war toys. Guess what? NOw they want to welch on the agreement! Don't accept their bullshit. That money was ours, is ours and there is no reason why we should allow them to dishonor the contract.

[Psephos]

24. There is NO TRUST FUND. Just a bunch of IOUs.

And a HUGE bulge of boomers is about to enter the system.

The fucking Congress, dems and pugs, spent all the trust funds each and every year for the last three decades, and left IOUs in their place. Those IOUs can only be paid by borrowing yet more money, and we're talking major, major, borrowing. Taxing the highest tax brackets at 100% wouldn't even begin to cover it.

Given the astonishing amount of deficit borrowing that's going on right now, finding foreign suckers to buy Uncle Sam's paper is going to become way harder pretty soon. Increasingly, potential lenders see no way that the US can ever pay its debts. In real world terms, that means that the interest demanded by lenders will be much higher, which will crush budgets due to the extra hundreds of billions needed for interest payments.

Nearly identical projections have been issued recently by the IMF and the CBO.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/u-s-is-bankrupt-and-we-don-t-even-know-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html

http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-fiscal-gap-that-will-sink-the-us-20100811-11zrx.html

[No Elephants]

33. Reply #15 says there is no trust fund. and why. The problem's with D.C. , not with Social Security.

"Taxing the highest tax brackets at 100% wouldn't even begin to cover it."

Specifics? Links?


Even if your statement--whatever it means in specifics--were true, we could do a few things, other than borrowing, that would at least help.

One is to raise income taxes. Another is to lift or mmodify the cap on contributions. A third is to apply some kind of income limit on eligibility for OASDI. Another is to raise the eligibility age some.

Has D.C. done any of that?

[DailyGrind51]

16. No one is hiring people over 50, just how are they supposed to support themselves when they are 65?

[LibDemAlways]

21. How is someone who is laid off at say 56 or 57 supposed to stay afloat

until reduced s.s. kicks in at 62? Employers are eliminating older workers in droves. My 59 year old husband was out of work for 6 months and is fortunately one of the lucky ones. He finally took a job offered by a former co-worker at a 40% salary cut. (Something else no one is talking about - the dramatic drop in wages as employers take advantage of the crappy economy by offering desperate job seekers insulting salaries.) This just as we face the daunting task of putting our daughter through college.

We were contemplating how we were going to get by for two and half years before he could start collecting a vastly reduced S.S. check. Scaling back on those checks is a recipe for disaster.

[No Elephants]

31. Not to mention workers who become disabled.

[whatchamacallit]

17. 20 million deadbeat freeloaders to the GOP

:banghead:

[No Elephants]

32. Please see Reply #30.

[indepat]

18. Although the administration surely knows, inexplicably the handiwork of the far-RW-packed Cat-food

Commission steamrollers on in deadly earnest with its mission of gutting future social security benefits. :grr: :mad:

[Turbineguy]

19. Well, at least that explains

why the repubs are so anxious to get rid of Social Security. Putting people into poverty is mother's milk to the GOP.

[No Elephants]

29. Please see Reply #30.

[Gormy Cuss]

22. Social security actually elevates some senior out of their pre-senior poverty days.

Not to mention that Medicare is often the first reliable health care payer for those same people -- and it still needs to be matched by Medicaid to be affordable.

[lovuian]

23. we can bail out banks and BP but not our own people

this will show Americans where they stand

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

25. It'll be 20 million plus 1

the day I retire......... :toast:

[felix_numinous]

26. If SS is cut then I would like to see

and FDR bill of rights demonstration in DC.

[unkachuck]

27. speaking for myself....

....ANY cuts to my SS would put me well into poverty....I'm barely making it as it is....count me as one of those 19.8 million....

....most Republicans and some Democrats are evil habitual liars....we all know Washington is going to continue to spend our tax dollars on a 'recovery' and whole host of useless things....now and into the perpetual future....

....do you want that money spent on you and I, or do you want it stolen and handed to the rich?....take notes and vote accordingly....

[Uncle Joe]

36. Kicked but too late to recommend.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[shanti]

37. if they cut social security

you can be sure that MANY MANY people will descend on the capitol!

[defendandprotect]

38. kick