Is paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by present-day workers a disgrace?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Responding to a questioner who claimed Social Security "will not be there" when current workers retire (which is wrong), McCain said this:

Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace, and it's got to be fixed.

As anyone who knows anything about Social Security understands, "paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers" is pretty much the functional definition of Social Security. Always has been. That's what John McCain is calling an "absolute disgrace."

...

Now, before you think, "Wow, that must be a slip of the tongue, he can't possibly mean that," please note that McCain said essentially the same thing to John Roberts on CNN this morning. From the transcript:

On the privatization of accounts, which you just mentioned, I would like to respond to that. I want young workers to be able to, if they choose, to take part of their own money which is their taxes and put it in an account which has their name on it. Now, that's a voluntary thing, it's for younger people, it would not affect any present-day retirees or the system as necessary. So let's describe it for what it is. They pay their taxes and right now their taxes are going to pay the retirement of present-day retirees. That's why it's broken, that's why we can fix it.

Here, McCain is saying, again, that the problem with Social Security is that Social Security is Social Security, instead of something else. He's saying the system is broken because young people "pay their taxes and right now their taxes are going to pay the retirement of present-day retirees." But that is the definition of the system. McCain is objecting to the basic structure of Social Security.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archiv...y_disgrace.html

[almaty 19]

mccain is swallowing the poison pill on this..the older folks and the aarp...will make certain if he continues to rall the vote against him...

[DairyFarmer 1]

Only problem with this is the biggest growth in age brackets are the "aged". The population ages while the birth rate goes down.

They pay their taxes and right now their taxes are going to pay the retirement of present-day retirees. That's why it's broken, that's why we can fix it.

How can it be fixed when the older generation is outstripping the younger one.

Edited July 9, 2008 by DairyFarmer

[Amby 490]

ughhhhh...b*tches!

[Dan J 277]

Considering how few people have enough saved in a 401k or pension plan, for many social security is all the retirement money they will get. Basically, if we don't have social security, many seniors will end up using social services in other ways.

How much you get paid from social security generally depends on how much you made while you were working. There is an upper limit on how much income will get taxed for social security. To fix the problem of having more seniors than workers, all we have to do is increase the upper income limit slightly. Which hasn't been done since Reagan.