As government moves forward with pending budget cuts a lot of things are going to get looked at one of those is going to be federal benefits for the retired. In fact the government is already slicing into retiree checks.
Higher federal withholding is taking a bite out of retirees’ annuity checks
The suddenly shrinking checks have hit retirees generally, not just those who were employed by the federal government. On Thursday, the IRS posted information on “Why Employees and Retirees May See Changes in 2011 Payments and Withholding.”
The OPM had provided an explanation for the bigger tax bite, but some retirees found the explanation wanting. As the Diary reported this month, the OPM said the expiration of a tax credit resulted in smaller checks for some annuitants. – Washington Post excerpt
I know I’m being pessimistic here but we’ve got to get real with ourselves how much longer can the government pay out to retirees? I really don’t see a scenario where we fix the situation and get back to where we were 20 years ago. This is going to sound like a crazy idea but what if the gov’t started phasing out Social Security, not the actual payment of it but where the money goes, and reallocated the money to other gov’t programs.
I realize that this is a young man’s perspective but I keep hearing “make and investment in our future” but I keep seeing investments in the past. I know we can’t pull the plug on SS just yet but phasing it our completely over the next 50 years (effects me) isn’t a bad idea. Yes it may widen the gap between rich and poor but isn’t that what happens in capitalism?
Should we start phasing out Social Security?
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