The solution needs no new taxes or debt and would stimulate the economy -
BOHEMIA, NY, May 11 – The Association of Mature American Citizens is counting Congressional noses in order to determine the feasibility of passage for a “realistic, immediate” Social Security fix before the November elections.
AMAC president Dan Weber said all members of the House and Senate will receive a letter from the senior group next week requesting their feedback on a comprehensive proposal that would guarantee the solvency of Social Security for future generations. “We’ve conducted polls among our 320,000 members and they are overwhelmingly in favor of reform now. Our intention is to poll Congress to see if our representatives in Washington are prepared to eschew politics and accede to the will of the people.”
Weber said that AMAC has already been in touch with a limited number of Senators and Representatives and that they all reacted favorably to this initiative.
In its letter, AMAC outlines elements of previously proposed strategic approaches to reform, asking lawmakers how likely and how soon a bipartisan legislative solution might be achieved. The association says that the fix should include protection for those individuals currently receiving benefits, fair and balanced age setbacks for future recipients, guaranteed modest, minimum, yearly cost of living increases and a provision for a new personal Social Security IRA.
“The American public sees a lack of meaningful legislation at a time of great distress in our economy while the mounting budget deficit and increasing National Debt threaten our financial well-being. Our Association, AMAC, with over 320,000 dues paying members continues to grow with our members demanding we take action on these problems,” Weber writes in his letter.
He told reporters that Social Security reform is a good place to start “because solving this problem is a no-brainer that needs no new taxes, does not add to our debt and has the potential to be an economic catalyst.”
Read entire AMAC proposal here: http://amac.us/social-security
NOTE TO EDITORS: Dan Weber is available for telephone interviews on this issue. Please contact John Grimaldi at 917-846-8485 or jpgrimaldi@verizon.net to set up a chat.
ABOUT AMAC
The Association of Mature American Citizens [http://www.amac.us] is a vibrant, vital and conservative alternative to those traditional organizations, such as AARP, that dominate the choices for mature Americans who want a say in the future of the nation. Where those other organizations may boast of their power to set the agendas for their memberships, AMAC takes its marching orders from its members. We act and speak on their behalf, protecting their interests, and offering a conservative insight on how to best solve the problems they face today.
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Sveiki,Užklydau čia visai netiketai, ieškodama mleiinės tešlos recepto, kuri gaminama be kiaušiniu ir pieno, Kūčios gi Ir negaliu atsitraukti!!! Super, ne tik receptai, bet ir pats rašymo stiliu, atrodo tarsi gyvai kalbetumeisi su laabai laaabai smagiu žmogumi kuris gamina labai skanų maistą!Tad sekmės visame kame, lieku jūsų ištikima skaitytoja, ir lauksiu naujų receptų bei įrašų.
If congress hadn’t STOLEN all the money that was ONLY SET UP FOR SOCIAL SECURITY IN THE FIRST PLACE, we wouldn’t be in this mess….We should indict Everyone in Washington who was responsible for Stealing this money. This was set up for S.S.alone, & was NOT to be used for ANY OTHER PURPOSE!!!!!!! And now that they stoled it all, here they are trying to figure out a solution…..What a bunch of IDIOTS, & what a CRIME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Too many liars on social security dissability along with physicians and lawyers who help them get these benefits. Also I would like to know how many people who are here illegally may be collecting benefits!
Just joined. So where is the proposal, what is the proposal, just what the heck is the proposal. ????
Hello Andy,
Please go to the following link to read more about the proposal. You will find another link, about a third of the way down the page, which will lead you to the entire proposal.
http://amac.us/social-security
So glad to have you on board!
I recently went to our local Social Security Office to inquire about drawing benefits at age 62. I was shocked to see out of eight people in the waiting room only two of us were in our early 60′s everyone else were in their mid 20′s. The problem is not seniors are living longer, the problem is people in their 20′s and 30′s collecting social security disability for all sorts of bogus reasons. What ever happened to work ethics in this country?
Come on, AMAC! How do I get excited over ‘Headlines,’ which is all that is available to us here. I left AARP over their support for Obama Care and turned to you. Don’t you think at least an outline of your plan is due us? We’d love to know what you have already submitted to several representatives and senators. How do we put pressure on our representatives if we don’t even know how to talk to them? I’m reasonably sure Dan Weber would not be available to every AMAC member who would call him with the same question I have posed here. Are you reading these comments, AMAC?
In reply to mimi: Key words, “never supposed to be”.
I encourage everyone to do as I do. Write, email and call your Congressmen and Senators on a very regular basis. Do not let up on them. We, The American people, elected them to do a job. Their focus right now needs to be putting back all the monies they stole from the Social Security Trust Fund. What ever it takes. What ever they have to sell. Stop spending a billion dollars a month on a war in the middle east we will never win and have no business being there in the first place. If you don’t communicate with your representatives on a regular basis, then they feel free to do what THEY want to do. Remember…..they are employees. We are the employers. We hired them. We pay their salaries. We can fire them! They are suppose to be doing it OUR way. Our government is suppose to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people. NOT…a government of the government, by the government and for the government!
One of the reasons that congress does not make positive changes to the Social Security program is because it does not really affect them! If their retirement was provided for service on congress only by a Social Security income there would be changes made to the system so that it would me senior’s needs both monetarily and medically, but they have, in effect exempted themselves from it and given themselves a substance retirement package after only one term. Wouldn’t be nice if the American worker could retire after only a few years working for a company with the same benefits?!?
How does one get a copy of the proposal? Difficult to argue with a non-existent set of proposals. I looked at AMAC.us, and could not find a copy of the proposal. Does it exist?
I’m with Robert. Where is the proposal? How is it funded?
Yes, where is the proposal???? I left AARP because of lack of information and I find I am running into the same problem here?
How did it all come about that the president or members of the house was ever granted permission to us Social Security money for their own use? In the forst place, it was not and still is not their money to do with as they please. That money belong’s to the tax payers that contributed each and every pay period in order to have something to fall back on latwer in life. The Governmant owe’s Social Security Trillions of Dollar’s now, not when they find a convienent time to start replaceing the I. O .U’s they put in the place of money they freely misused.
Yes,Tom, I agree. If an employer in the private sector used retirement funds for their own game plan it would be called “embezzelment” and they would face jail time for their crimes …… they need to put OUR money back where it belongs ……..
I worked until my personal “magic retirement age” of 65 yrs and 7 months. I waited until the full age to get my WHOLE benefit instead of a reduced amount. My wife and I live on our combined SS and some savings we put away after we raised 3 children including paying for their college without borrowing money. If everyone would do as previous generations did….save a nest egg for the future, we’d all live a better life later.
And what will you do when Social Security is bankrupt due to government withdrawals from the fund for other purposes and your monthly benefit payment stops? I see the possibility (and probability?) of this happening. I am nearly 75, so maybe I will die before then, but my spouse will have years to go. I won’t be there to protect her!
They preached how we should be investing in IRA’s and 401-K’s and not depend on SS. My wife and I did that. Our IRA’s and 401-K’s where doing fantastic! Then the big meltdown happened. Before I could get our money pulled out and parked someplace safe, we had lost most of our money. Retirement money that we will not get back. We are getting our SS now. I’m 70 and working full time. Here’s the problem! If we didn’t have SS, we would be in trouble because our investments were wiped out. Happened to a lot of other people as well. What was our governments solution! Give more money to the very people who bankrupted us and our nation. Now those people are all living like Emperors. Here I am, 70 years old and still working to keep the ends together. I not sure what the ultimate answer is. But SS was there for us when our investments went adios. The same people who encouraged us to make those investments warning us SS would not be there, are the same people who STOLE all of the money out of the SS trust fund. All of them should be put to sleep. I think SS, IRA’s and 401-K’s could be tied together in such a way that they could never be touched by the criminals in our government and wall street nor would you ever lose anything regardless of what happens to the economy.
What was once meant as a small retirement safety net is now a retirement program in its own right. Federal pensions, for example, consist of part pension, part social security, part personal savings/matched contributions. To end or reduce social security would mean an end of what these retirees have contributed to during their careers.
I agree with the one who recognize that congress, under democrats, put the SS in the general fund so they could spend it. When the republicans got control of congress they didn’t change it back! When we elect people who exempt themselves from SS, medicare, prosecution for crimes they commit, their aides from paying back school loans, and the list goes on; nothing will change for the better. I would like to see limited terms and “no” pension other than SS for their time. We would see a better America then.
Laurence is 500% correct – Tdrm limits on all elected – they get nothing more than the general public gets but nithing less either- No need for a pension for short term service nor since there will be no long term service due to term limits- Same SS benefits, same Medicare benefits nothing special- no self determined payb raISES EITHER. tIE IT TO THE COST OF LIVING RISES- AND LIMITB PAY BY LAW
Here , here …. well said
Social Security (F.I.C.A.) is not Insurance—FDR lied to us! There has NEVER been any real money in the S.S.Trust Fund—–Company withholding and the company’s share ALWAYS went to the I.R.S. (now to the Treasury Department).
One suggestion to get our money would be if the U.S. sold all the National Parks and all Federal Buildings. They could rent any buildings needed. End Medicare—buy your own insurance and pay your own doctor bills—-then file for a refund. The doctors would get paid faster and the government would be out of your health. And the medical bills would be only about half what they are now. Gordon Maddox
I have paid into SS for many decades. I have always known that my contributions were going to those already collecting, not being put aside for me. Thus, it is a TAX. If at all possible, I plan to give my SS to my children to refund some of the tax they are paying to support my generation. This is a regressive tax that taxes the poor. the self-employed and other job creators disproportionately. All workers should be allowed to opt out of it. Other tax revenues should be used to pay the amount promised to those already retired. It will end sometime. Better a planned ending than a forced one.
I’m in agreement with almost everything Jeanne said, However, regarding this comment.
“This is a regressive tax that taxes the poor.”
I have two points,
If you don’t tax the poor for their retirement then they spent their life having zero responsibility for their own retirement.
Also S.S. is progressive in its payments, the poor get their money back in a much shorter time than middle income people. With life span being what it is, the poor will get back several times the money they paid in.
Changes do need to be made.
I don’t know where Rick, Joe or Jim are from, but it sounds like the old Soviet Union. Social Security was never supposed to be a ‘tax’, but an insurance program for retirement and it was only to be a ‘floor’, not your whole retirement. You should get out based on what you put in – period.
You should get out what you put in PLUS interest. If it was working that way you would get back a lot more than you do now with the current SS system
Actually Paul, king Harry got very little of the mormon vote. We (most) find him to be a self-serving, self promoting, serpent that has embarrased the L.D.S. community. He was elected by his friends in the casino business that bussed employees to the poles.
It SS will NEVER be fixed by congress until they have to retire on it also……same with medicaid,care.
I concur with Rick. A tax is a tax and should be levied on all income. Lower the percentage and take out the employer contribution so they can hire more workers.
This is such an easy fix you have to wonder why it hasn’t been done.
1) Remove the cap
2) Raise the age requirement
3) Only pay out to folks who have paid in
Dan,
I am on SSD, and have been since I was 60. My wife and I are now 65 and get a total of 39250. Why don’t we have more? Why didn’t we save for our retirement? Our first born has a severe birth defect. We needed that money to adapt our home for our child, buy accessible vehicles and equipment for our child and cover other costs which our insurance didn’t cover. When our child turned 18 SSD and other benefits started.
Our child (now age 35) lives in a group home and the state takes all (except for $35.00 a month) of our child’s SSD for personal maintenance. Our child cannot have a vacation unless we pay for both our child and a personal aide. If our child is outside of the group home or a hospital for more than thirty days in a calendar year the state will determine that the group home is unnecessary and we will have to resume full care even though we are physically incapable of it.
What is your plan for saving Social Security? As recent members we would really like to know.
As it stands now our savings will last provided we die quickly and do not need extended nursing care.
Kirk
Sorry about your struggles, but I know of a many two earner families that would be thrilled to get $39,250
for their two 40 hr work weeks. My mother lived on less than $14,000 for 20 yrs. When she died she wanted a poem read about needing a saucer because her cup was so full and running over.
Love you, mom
This will never happen before November 2012 because Prince Harry will keep it from being voted on by the Senate.
You are absolutely right Boyd….Harry Reid is the enemy of the people and should be thrown out on his ear. What is wrong with the voters of Nevada? I have no problem with someone disagreeing with any bill but barring the door by refusing to bring it to a vote is an attack on the every voter.
Harry Reid happens to be a Mormon and as such he got most of the Mormon votes in Nevada. That is how he won. I wonder if he could be Impeached. If yes it would have to be started in the House but would not go through the Senate
JoAnn, In my opinion the person who worked in Medicare is in cohort with the person in the Hospital’s Billing dept. and both of their pockets got filled up. I worked in the Hospital for almost 40 yrs. and I have seen corruption in all areas, and heads of different departments icluding Administrator mind you!
Oh yes, this is true …. a friend of mine pays $50.00 for the exact same blood test that Medicare was billed $93.00 for on my behalf ….. what’s up with that??????
Over my carreer, almost the same amount of money has been paid into SS by me and my employers as into IRAs, and 401(k)s. I will receive about $25,000 per year from Social Security. Even after getting whacked in the recent financial meltdown, I will extract over $100,000 per year from the tax-differed accounts (without touching principal).
We must conclude that the opportunity costs of the Social Security system are staggering. Instead of trying to figure out how to preserve it, we should be trying to figure out how to end it. Let the means-tested welfare system that is supported by a progressive income tax take care of those who neglect or are unable to save for their own retirement.
Also, to Ed who is approaching the “magic” age of 65, you are in for a bit of a shock. Your retirement age is now at least 65 1/2 and may be as high as 67, depending on your exact age. It was raised the last time SS was “reformed.”
There is another option. Up to 1977, Social Security was in a separate trust fund. After the separate fund ended Congress has been spending it. Social Security needs to be in a separate fund coupled with a lock box bill to keep Congress from spending it. Then Congress has to stop wasting money. For example 1.3 Billion dollars to be given to Egypt in 2012 amd 775 Million to Pakistan. There’s two billion flushed down a sewer to countries that don’t like us. We don’t have to pay someone wh odoesn’t like us. They will do that for nothing.
We have more oil in the United States than in the rest of the world and we need to drill it. The EPA won’t like it but TS which stands for tough situation.
Don’t even think of touchng the $$$$ I’ve paid into the system for the past 44 years …….
I agree that people who have never paid should not get benefits, especially illegal aliens( go on – sue me) but I am a legal resident alien that has paid in for 26 years, so please include me . My deceased husband paid in but collected only 3 years. I am grateful that I can get the SS payments.
I agree 100% with you.
God Bless you!
Social Security is in deep trouble and any person that tries to be knowledgeable should realize it.I am 74 years old,but I will gladly sacrifice some of my monthly check to keep it going as long as the Government keeps it’s hands off of it.This is the reason it is in trouble now,over the years the Gov’t keeps borrowing from it and leaving IOU’s and never paying it back.God help our country if this fraud in the White House gets in again.There is no oversight on any Government agency right now,it Seems like every agency CEO just does as he or she pleases with no rules or regulations or penalties for misbehavior.Anyhow I and my wife are new members of AMAC and very proud to be.I cut up our AARP cards and mailed them back with a scorching letter telling them how they have become a far left org.under the current leadership.Please keep up the good work.Franklin
Franklin, Good job. your comments are right on target. You and I are the same age. Fight organized crime
re-elect mo one unless there doing the job.
What exactly is the plan? Did I miss it somewhere along the line?
I read in other posts where the plan was announced earlier this year. We recently became members so that is probably why the missed the original announcement. Thank you.;
Gentlemen:
In your letter you are telling me about your great proposal to reform Social Security which has been agreed to by many but you fail to outline the proposal . You call it a no-brainer. The easiest way to reform Social Security is to eliminate the cap entirely and means- test the program. The current system is totally unfair . Believe the current cap is 104K so anyone earning less than 104K has 100% of his/her wages subject to the tax. If you earn 208K only 50% is subject to the tax. At 416K only 25% of wages are subject to the tax. At a million it works out to about 10%. This would ultimately result in the high earners paying into Social Security and not getting their money out because of the Means
Testing. However, chalked that off to becoming wealthy on the backs of the poor souls who have 100% of their wages taxed. I realize that getting this through Congress would be difficult because it is fair. There are way too many people in congress whose only goal is self preservation. Would love to see your plan in detail. Thank you.
All they gotta do is KEEP it for American citizens ONLY, who paid into the system, for its original purpose, NOT all the non-American invaders that end up getting MORE than the Americans!! SHIP them OUT!!!!
NO rights, NO benefits, NO services, NO rewards for ANY non-citizens!!!! It’s OUR money, not the gubments!!!!
my husband has a primary medical insurance policy with medicare payor in the secondary position. He recently went into the hospital and the bill for his stay was $33000.00 and the contracted amount with the primary carrier was $6000.00 in which they paid $5400.00 leaving a co-pay of $600.00 for my husbands primary share. Medicare gets the bill…they have a similar contract amount of $6000.00 of which they applied $1200.00 for my husbands inpatient deductible and paid the hospital an additional $4800.00. My question to them was why did you pay $4800.00 on a bill that had a balance of $600.00? Of course the girl on the phone could not answer that question and stated how I should get a job with Medicare and my response to her was: If I were to work there either all of you would get retrained on how to coordinate benefits or you would all be fired. In my opinion this is what is the matter with medicare..no one really cares about what they are doing in the medicare office, its just a job and they also waste very large amounts of money over paying bills and also on people who do not know what they are doing…too sad!
I read this proposal when it was annnounced earlier this year. Even though I am approaching the magic age of 65, this proposal works for me. Dan keep up the good work. Ed