Thread: Any ideas on entitlement reform?

Alright, this is going through my mind and I don't know the answers. Maybe some of you will have studied this issue more and have some practical answers. Now that our country is well under way to immigration enforcement, there are some other big issues looming.

Prospective Health and Human Services Secretary, Tom Price, seems to think some changes will be needed in Social Security. The most common estimates I have read project a shortfall by 2034, of about 20 percent. However, does this account for the accelerating PERCENTAGE of Americans who would be on it, by then, due to people living much longer but the retirement age not increasing by the same ratio? In other words there could be a bigger shortfall in the SS program, other than the projected 21 percent.

Sen. Ron Wyden grilled Price on his investment acumen---something which I think would not be relevant in this case. Nonetheless who would really want to cut Social Security? Talk about a self defeating policy.

OTOH, there is Medicaid, something which no one figured would become such a huge dependency. In the 1970's virtually anyone could find a job in America, except the severely disabled.

Mick Mulvaney, testifying as OMB nominee, also worried that both Social Security and Medicare would face budget challenges.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...curity/514298/

Questions I would ask:
1. What about going after fraud and waste? I have read that there is around $50 billion annual Medicare fraud. What would it cost to stop that?
2. What about raising the Social Security contribution ceiling? If the US economy is revived under Trump won't there be a larger percentage of higher incomes, also?
3. And if there is economic recovery can Medicaid assistance be replaced with something else? It seems like less people should be on it (Note: I have, or have had, some severely disabled family members. One was an SSI recipient, due to muscular dystrophy. $35/mo, back in the day)
4. What about the IRS tax gap? There is lots of talk about the US deficit (although not so much correlating it and the entitlements deficit). The federal uncollected income tax deficit is now $500 billion per year. I know this would pay for something.

I am so glad you started this thread, Captainron.

Here's my thinking on Social Security and Medicare plus some other programs.

1. Medicare which I've only experience through my mother is amazing. How they do what they do with such small contributions on payroll tax is truly amazing. No changes should be made at this time except what Trump is proposing on negotiating the prices on pharmaceuticals. I think there is a lot of room on a number of products that would make a big difference. This would also help Medicaid as ell. As to revenue, there has been no increase in the payroll tax for Medicare for 30 years. In the past 30 years, we've experienced the highest increase in medical care costs in our history, astronomical costs, yet our Congresscritters have determined while on the one side of the mouth claiming Medicare is going broke on the other they don't raise the tax because they signed a no new tax pledge to get political contributions from some donors. SOLUTION: RAISE THE MEDICARE PAYROLL TAX.

2. As to Social Security, I'm opposed to any age increases for any group, I'm opposed to any decline in benefits for anyone. The payroll tax for Social Security hasn't been raised in 26 years, that's why it's going broke. The baby boomers have come on board, wages and salaries have stagnated, so while the number of beneficiaries increase and the contributions decrease, cost of living goes up, yet the revenues are inadequate on a long term basis at a payroll tax that was last raised 26 years ago. RAISE THE PAYROLL TAX FOR SOCIAL SECURITY.

3. Social Security Disability: Create jobs so there are plenty of good paying jobs which will enable people with some disability to find jobs they can do with the disability and continue working full time until retirement age. For people who need disabiity, that's fine, I've no problem with that at all. Might need to raise that portion of the Social Security payroll tax to provide for the greater numbers, but this should level out when Trump brings our good jobs back.

4. FAIRTAX: If you don't want to penalize employers and employees with the needed increases in the payroll taxes, consider eliminating the income tax and replace it with the FairTax which replaces income based taxes with a national retail sales tax that includes 8.09% rate to fund Social Security and Medicare (includes SS Disability) and 14.91% for general revenue. The FairTax at these rates robustly funds Social Security and Medicare with no worries at all. There is a statutory review as well that requires Congress by law to raise the 8.09% at any time additional funding is required. Given that SSA has run this program without a tax increase for 26 and 30 years without additional taxes tells me you wouldn't need an increase for decades, especially after Trump fixes our country.

5. IMMIGRATION: We desperately need to reduce legal immigration and eliminate all illegal immigration from the country. The unnecessary impact of both on SS and Medicare is outrageous. Massive immigration steals jobs from Americans, reduces their earnings, which reduces contributions to SS and Medicare, forces many onto disability or early retirement, increases stress and depression which increases medical needs which increases risk of diseases and conditions that when they retire and go on Medicare increases the cost of Medicare.

6. Medicaid needs to be limited to US citizens and permanent legal residents. We need to get rid of automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens to rid Medicaid of the cost of coverage for children who shouldn't even be in the country. We also need to limit the number of pregnancies that are covered by Medicaid. People on Medicaid should not be reproducing at taxpayer expense. The rule should be 1 pregnancy in progress when for whatever reason you become eligible for Medicaid but no coverage for pregnancies that develop after you are on Medicaid. Medicaid was never intended to be a lifetime service, it was a safety net to help people temporarily while they get back on their feet after losing a job. We never designed as a country to have a constant pool of the same poor people to any large degree. What's been going on in our country that has mushroomed Medicaid beyond any sustainable level is a crime, sin, an abomination. We have 75 million people on Medicaid. 8 years ago we had 49 million. Only 5 million of these are senior citizens who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. So 70 million of these Medicaid people are working age adults and their children. This is a unacceptable and has to end. These people have to move off of whatever they're doing or not doing and get to work at jobs that offer insurance and pay sustainable wages.

7. Federal Free School Lunch Program needs to be eliminated. Lunch should be provided to all students at school at no charge and funded by the local school district.

8. Federal Food Stamps need to be eliminated for everyone except the disabled, elderly or unemployed. We spend $70 billion a year on food stamps for 44 million people. The needs of other groups must be resolved by states, counties and local government. They have to figure out their population balance, the sustainability of their own population, create jobs, protect wages, and get these people out of poverty today. Generations of people have been trapped in this human disaster of not even being capable of feeding themselves, let alone their families. This has to end. NOW.

I do not want to pay for any FREE school lunch program. Parents need to pack their kids lunch or give them lunch money. Many are already on welfare and food stamps, and now we are providing Breakfast, Lunch and food for them to take home on weekends! I packed my lunch, put it in my locker and it was fine. Now they are complaining about hating the food, special diets, allergies, halal food...ridiculous! Can't feed them? Then STOP having them. This is out of control. Parents need to start taking care of their OWN children, not taxpayers. Don't like it...go pay for Private School.

Get ALL illegals off of our welfare, food stamps, public schools, housing, medical care, no tax refunds...costing us billions. That would immediately alleviant the cash crunch on these programs. End anchor baby now, they are not US citizens...blow the lid off this scam.

You get welfare and assistance for ONE child...lifetime maximum benefit of 5 years. So you had better budget accordingly and get on birth control. No more careers off the breed and feed programs.

Section 8 housing...stop the generations of a LIFETIME living off the dole. You get 2 years to get on your feet and then you are evicted. So again, stop having children you cannot afford. I hope Dr. Ben Carson hits this one right out of the park. Personal responsibility.

Social Security...the government needs to pay it back...and keep their PAWS off of it. There was plenty of money to fund it, they bankrupt it. And get the Cuban's off of it...it is our money. Stop ALL foreign aid...put that money right into the SS Funds until we get it where it needs to be.

Stop disability fraud! The Doctor's are in on this scam. Many people need it and deserve it...their are millions that need to be booted off of it.

Stop the waste, fraud and abuse of these programs. You have to show up IN PERSON to the welfare, food stamp, social security office, etc at least once a year to PROVE you are who you are and you are indeed still alive. Many benefits are paid out to deceased people. Also, the Bureau of Vital Statistics must provide Death Certificates to these government agencies and get the dead people off of them. Stops the identity theft.

Stop the billions in IRS fraud...NO refunds to illegals. They cannot receive ANY government benefits on behalf of a US citizen...minor or otherwise. We are not rewarding you for your criminal trespass into our Country.


Stop these EBT credit cards! Go back to Food Banks with healthy food. Biggest fraud and waste ever. They scam this program in every way possible.

I think that it is inevitable that there is a population of citizens in the US who are permanently unable to find sufficient employment to support their basic needs. We need to sustain a system of housing and sustenance that keeps these people fed and housed. It is an atrocity that we have citizens living on the streets. This is intolerable.

Every effort should be made to encourage such individuals to seek opportunities to support themselves and that opportunities be made available to them. Since the struggle to seek such employment always occurs at the margins of employment, it is inevitable that such employment will not always be sufficient to support their basic needs and so people who are marginally employed should be able to also secure assistance in housing and sustenance. This is how the system works now.

However, nobody but US citizens should be able to secure such support. Nobody who is a recent immigrant should be able to secure such support. If an immigrant finds themselves unable to secure the means to support themselves, then they should be repatriated back to their country of origin.

In addition, nobody should be able to anticipate starting a family or expanding a family based on the expectation that public assistance will be increased to support such a change. If, at some point in your life, you find yourself unable to support yourself, then your family size becomes fixed as far as your assistance potential is concerned. For the rest of your life, you should not be able to expect any addition assistance to support additional children. If you have no children and find yourself on public assistance, then you will never be able to receive additional assistance for any children you have later. If you have children, then you will not be able to expect to have any more children.

For example, say you were twenty three years old and had been working for four years and had one child and were forced to aquire some sort public assistance. Then you went back to work at a level where you were no longer eligible for public assistance for three years and you had another child. But suddenly you were forced to go back on public assistance. You would not be able to secure public assistance for that additional child.

This seems pretty severe, but consider what is going on now. You have people who grew up under public assistance and become adults with the expectation that they will form relationships, have children and raise families, all under the expectation that they will do so with public assistance. If it is possible that you could go back to work for a period of time to add additional child, then this simply becomes a new wrinkle to the plan for raising families under the expectation of public assistance.

While it is reasonable to expect that we will always have a part of the population that requires public assistance, it is not reasonable to expect that we create and sustain an entire underclass that exists for generations under public assistance.

Having a family is something you earn by prospering enough as an individual to support a family and being able to comfortably anticipate doing so into the future. If circumstances prevent this, then you need to restrict your expectations here.

Lots of good ideas!!

I can see where a lot of people are against abortion, it is a hot topic. I am Pro-Choice with strict rules and regulations on this.

But there needs to be a program for FREE vasectomies and tubal ligations that are easily accessible and educate the public on this. If you know you cannot afford children, do not want them and the father's do not want them or be in their lives...then go get it done! We are not paying for your sex anymore with welfare and food stamps for life.

Drug addicts especially should be prevented from having these babies that will be sick and struggle for life! No child wants to be born in these conditions.

We do not need One Billion more mouths to feed off the backs of others. Not to mention the suffering of these children living in poverty, crime and poor conditions that will repeat the cycle. What a selfish, disgusting thing to do to a child. Keep your pants zipped or go get fixed.

We need a massive campaign for Global Population Control.

I do not want my quality of life to suffer for YOUR selfish choices in life forcing taxpayers to pay for it.

"Stop disability fraud! The Doctor's are in on this scam. Many people need it and deserve it...their are millions that need to be booted off of it."

There were lots of unemployed Americans who started qualifying for it during the recession----likely they applied, got turned down and then got a lawyer who knew how to claim it. There are a number of them who specialize in that.

There are some other new entitlements that have sneaked in, due to a combination of Supreme Court rulings and Obama's immigration policies: Like paying for the social security benefits for an immigrant spouse, including gay immigrant spouses, now. And possibly their dependents.

I see nobody commented on the federal tax deficit (and there are corresponding state income tax deficits, too). It will be interesting to see if this declines as illegal immigrants leave. It became twice as large as it had been in 1988, as the US underground economy swelled. $500 billion is an awful lot of money. They could go after that alone, go after the fraudulent claims in all programs, and there would be little need for any other entitlement reform. Although though I do support raising the contribution ceiling. In fact my 1400/mo from SSDI (yes I'm one of those) and a comparable union pension is still hard to stretch from month to month. In 2018 it switches to regular SS. I would like to see Social Security recipients get a big raise---like 50 percent at least!! I would have a higher benefit had there not been humongous recessions and unfair treatment even when I was working. Our union bosses double dip on their pensions and of course they have accumulated more SS, too, since they were "full time". Some of these union boss couples probably collect 10,000 a month between them. I was told by the trust office that there are union members who collect as much as $4000, from the Trust alone, so not including their govt. check or spouses' check.

And then you think there are working people who collect only the average SS check of $1300 . Let's get the deadbeat illegal aliens out of here, put workers back to work, make America great AND THEN HAVE A PEOPLE'S DISCUSSION ON ENTITLEMENTS!!!

Yes, Captainron! We have to get Americans back to work, even retirees who are still able to work and want to work some more, part-time or whatever to supplement their incomes. No way you can live on $1,300 a month and many earn less than that. Then we'll figure out IF any major changes are needed with entitlements like SSA and Medicare.

There is so much fraud. Clean it up. No social security to illegal aliens. I like President Trump saying he would not do anything to hurt it for people. Social Security is all so many have as a source of income and it hurts my heart to see seniors suffer as lawmakers in Washington get the best, get perks, grow to be millionaires with great healthcare. The cost of living increases have not been enough for those who solely rely on social security.

Working again for those who have retired is nice if they are able. I know some ninety year olds that work regularly.

Young people should be encouraged to plan better for their futures. Our government can't handle it's checkbook, its finances at all. The less a person relies on government the better.

I have appreciated reading this thread.

All these are great ideas, we need to severely screen all of our programs cleaning out the illegal aliens first then moving onto the drug addicts and others who are receiving benefits for a lifetime for something that can be cured. We have a lot of American deadbeats on these programs as well. Once that is done we can set new parameters for these programs which are more like they were years ago which was the original intent.