11 days until your SS checks might be interrupted

I have no idea, I’m not a politician.

The way our forefathers designed our constitution is to hold the elected politicians accountable for their actions. Their thought process was that: “The people of our great nation would hold the politicians accountable, not fight about which side is right or wrong.”

It doesn’t matter what I would do or cut, that’s not only the job of our elected officials, but the RESPONSIBILITY of the citizens to question their actions.

These days, the politicians and big tech control everything and “we the people” complain on political forums. Not very effective.

 

Now, that's an easy cop out. You don't need to be a politician to understand the math behind the federal deficit.

Yes, the first is to repeal "Citizens United". The second is campaign finance reform. The third is ranked-choice voting. The last issue is especially important in the primaries, which have to be fixed to prevent the current crop of extremists to be nominated in safe districts. Fourth, eliminate gerrymandering. A large number of safe districts is the worst thing that can happen to the country.

 

Do you think the politicians understand the math behind the federal deficit?

 

ABC reports. "The reviews are starting to come in as details emerge about the debt ceiling agreement reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

"Some of the earliest objections are coming from Republicans, the most conservative members of Congress, particularly members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus.

“I think it's a disaster!” tweeted Matt Rosendale, R-Mont.

“Fake conservatives agree to fake spending cuts,” tweeted Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

"This ‘deal’ is insanity," tweeted Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C.

"Some Democrats dislike what is roughly a spending freeze on non-defense programs next year and chafe at work requirements.

"Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., called it terrible policy Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

“However, it is bad policy. I told the president that directly, when he called me last week on Wednesday, that this is saying to poor people and people who are in need that we don’t trust them,” Jayapal.

Conclusion: When the extreme right is complaining and the extreme left is complaining, it has to one hell of a good piece of legislation.

 

Debt ceiling bill faces a tough path in the House as GOP opposition grows
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/30/debt-ceiling-deal-updates.html

The Crazy can still sink this deal and with it the world economy. I wish they didn't like chaos so much.

 

Speaking of the Crazy....

 

Never assume that Republican political leaders have an intelligent plan.

 

First thing on the list is "PAY RAISES" for the houses

 

There will be no default because the federal government has the money to service debt interest. There will be no default regardless of the borrowing limit. It is actually illegal for the federal government to default on debts. The thing that will kill us is the profligate spending. The borrowing limit needs to be cut in half as a start.

 

It's an old argument that I have heard before. Nothing new that 557 is stating.

 

The best way to fix these issues is to have a reelection rate of incumbents of no more than 50%, get rid of lobbying, and create stricter ethics rules in which donors and politicians can get into serious legal trouble for paying for that "vacation" for the politician. Until that happens, we do the best we can.

 

So why were we arguing about investing and lending to begin with again?

We have an older population, we also have a unhealthy population with 60% having some sort of medical ailment that can turn into serious medical trouble. The problem is that SS by law has to invest in T Bills and T Bonds. That is the federal interest rate, the bare minimum. As money comes in and expenditures go out, we still hold a balance, a net positive balance, but expenditures are more than the money coming in. And that is the major problem. If we can increase the SS Trust Funds return rate by having the Trust fund as a whole invest in the stock market through TPS, then the rate of decline will be far less. It does not solve the problem permanently, but it does not cut benefits either.

All solvent means, financially and legally, until there is a negative balance in the Trust Fund, And that is when it becomes insolvent.

Social Security issues has nothing to do with "printing money." Money is not printed, Most of our financies is M2. Liquid M1 is currency and hard cash, and that is even a fraction of M1. But banks create the money through loans. If you don't want that, then you should be arguing a very hard credit crunch in which no one can borrow money. And that will definitely piss off people like Trump

None of the annuities were sanctioned or even certified by an actuary, which was the problem. Anyone could sell an "annuity" just like anyone today can put up a sign that says "I do taxes." The problem was that he sold the so-called annuities to people who were given great promises of rates of return with no backup, financially or legally, to those claims. Today, they are rules and regulations, most of whom were created after his trial, and mostly on the state level at first, namely New York, Massachusetts, and Deleware.

No it does not.

And I go by the statue in the United States Code. And thus it does not meet all the requirements. Again, Social Security is not an annuity, it is not an investment, it was never designed to be that way.

So why is the entity taking your property? Did you violate the contract in which that was a remedy?

26 USC 3101 and 3102 pretty much states that as a tax. If it is a tax, then it is not an investment.

 

Exactly the response I expected from you.

 

Yes, Noam Chomsky was one of the first to explain why MSM = Fake News.

“In effect, the large bureaucracies of the powerful subsidize the mass media, and gain special access by their contribution to reducing the media's costs of acquiring the raw materials of, and producing, news. The large entities that provide this subsidy become "routine" news sources have privileged access to the gates. Non-routine sources must struggle for access, and may be ignored by the arbitrary decision of the gatekeepers. It should also be noted that in the case of the largesse of the Pentagon and the State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy, the subsidy is at the taxpayers' expense, so that, in effect, the citizenry pays to be propagandized in the interest of powerful groups such as military contractors and other sponsors of state terrorism.” , Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, Pantheon Press, 1988.

 

Most government spending is flushed down ineffective, corrupt and usually destructive bureaucrat managed programs that never adequately meet the critical needs of either the productive working class or the idle underclass of utterly dependent drop outs. So, there can never be the kind of broad based political support that would protect politicians who vote for spending cuts/balanced budgets.

Your Pension Is a Lie: There's $210 Trillion Of Liabilities Our Government Can't Fulfill, Oct 10, 2017.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnma...-our-government-cant-fulfill/?sh=f7d6eac65b1f

 

Because you apparently didn’t read my posts and started in telling me lending directly wasn’t the only kind of investment. Of course I never claimed it was but I guess you needed to change my argument to something you felt you could address even though it wasn’t my argument. That’s called a fallacy.

Social Security was SET UP to be funded by a growing base of contributors. It was never intended to serve a static population. It’s good you are starting to understand SS is health and life insurance as well. We are making a bit of progress.

You are doing it again. I have made the claim SS is solvent because the payment rates have been raised 600% and the tax cap has been raised exponentially. Instead of addressing what I post you write something obvious that is the FOUNDATION of my statement. Please address what I actually post.

I’m glad you understand most of the increased monetary supply is derived from lending. Few do. But SS most certainly owes its existence to the ability of government to “print money”. Notice I AGAIN used parentheses around the term. We can use whatever term you wish, “increasing monetary supply”, etc. You can pick.

As you correctly point out, we have a debt based economy. This means the entire government depends on its ability to increase the money supply and SS along with the rest of government.

Ponzi didn’t sell annuities. He practiced legal arbitrage until the IRCs he was using were suspended. Then he transitioned to full Ponzi. But we can’t call his scheme a Ponzi because the laws you are citing (18 U.S. Code § 1341) didn’t exist prior to his scheme. You are claiming a Ponzi is only a Ponzi if it is addressed by the above code. Clearly Ponzi’s scheme in 1920 was not actually a Ponzi because the US code you claim is the definitive definition of Ponzi did not exist. You are also claiming a scheme using later investments to pay initial investors practiced in Siberia is not a Ponzi because it doesn’t violate US code.

Yes it does.

It’s clear you and others here have no idea what an investment is. It’s sad. But I’ll educate you below.

Taxation is a function of the majority approving of the practice. That’s it.

Now it’s time for you all to invest in the ultimate investment—education. After all, higher education has a return on investment of about 85%. But your ROI here can beat that because I’m not charging you tuition.

You all seem hung up on US law or something. But that has nothing to do with what an investment is. Education is an investment. Health insurance is an investment. An investment is anything you forego consumption to obtain in expectation of that thing having more value at some point in the future than the foregone consumption. That’s it. That means purchasing running shoes to prevent diabetes instead of purchasing doughnuts is an investment.

And now the kicker. Paying taxes is one of the most effective forms of investing! As a society we have discovered foregoing a bit of consumption to invest in education, national security, infrastructure, etc. is a good investment. Just like a family may decide to buy more stock instead of another week drinking on the beach in Tahiti, we have decided as a society to invest in national security and education through taxation instead of spending that “money” on video games and go-cart rides. What’s your ROI on the taxes you pay for national defense? Transportation infrastructure?

Your ROI is so great you over-invest in government services and become dependent on that investment to the point you don’t diversify your investments. That is what prompted my initial post in this thread.

 

@Alwayssa explained it to you.

 

No, he can’t explain because he doesn’t understand what an investment is. Neither do you. Nor do either of you know what a Ponzi scheme is. Alwayssa doesn’t even know where the term originated.

 

They can keep their promise by appropriating the funds. They might raise taxes, too.

 

If you don't know anything, how can you criticize them?

I've had success getting what "we the people" want, and getting rid of pols who wouldn't do our bidding.

 

Yeah, sure--you tell 'em.

 

The Inconvenient Truth:

Corrupt government raises taxes to create more opportunities for the ruling political class to plunder the wealth of the nation it governs.
A first step toward real reform would be to stop enriching the crooks.

IMO, at this point all tax hikes should be opposed until such time as at least most of the tax revenue is immediately transferred into vested use accounts controlled by citizens to meet their critical life needs.

 

Here is a picture I took about 2 minutes ago of some of my investments. I’m out virtue signaling. LOL. How many investments can you identify?

 

Your approach denies a pension to people who earned it, and perhaps even a salary for those doing work now.

Maybe we need to assert ourselves as citizens and not take it out on people who work for us. What's going on now with the polarization with many of us getting suckered into taking sides and overlooking sleazy pol behavior is what should stop.

 

Enough that I don't use Medicare or collect Social Security. The difference between us is that I want to reform the system so working class people get enough from their work that they can put food on the table and a roof over their heads.