Warren Buffet on Social Security

Warren Buffet was quoted on CNN's Money program with Lou Dobbs, as calling for an increase in the salary income level on which Social Security is taxed. It is currently at about $90K. Raising it would have more affluent Americans pay a larger share of their income than they currently contribute.

He also called for means testing. He stated that he gets a check for $1700 monthly and cashes it, but would be able to eat without it. He realizes that those individuals or couples who are lucky enough to have a high retirement income do not need their monthly check. It is a pointless and wasteful giveaway to a rich elite when there are so many more people who barely scrape by even on full benefits.

Social Security Simplified

Social Security should be treated like any other entitlement program. To receive the pension guarantee payments at age 62 or 65, regardless of how much was paid into the system, the recipient should have to prove need. This need would be based primarily on income.

Those individuals whose income exceeded a specified amount should not receive any payments. It makes absolutely no sense for high income retirees to receive any Social Security payments. So many retirees are forced to wait by the mail box for their check while others have two or more homes and receive the same amount.

There could certainly be a graduated system for payouts rather than a single income threshold. Additionally, should the income of the more affluent retirees fall below the threshold, for whatever reason, they would then qualify for either partial or full payments.

The argument that, "I paid into it, therefore I'm entitled to it.", does not make any sense. Virtually every other government entitlement program requires a means test. Why should Social Security be any different.

I simply find it strange that Bill Gates and I will get the same check when we retire. Does that make sense to anyone?

Your comments are welcome.

The Case of Tom Delay

I don't know how Tom Delay can live with himself. He smugly states that he broke no laws, but he is merely hiding behind the very lobbyist friendly laws that the Congress has slowly created to allow the members to party hardy with any and all special interest groups and PACs and then say there is no influence peddling. He takes lavish trips with shady characters from a world few of us can comprehend and dares to call it meeting with constituents. Maybe no laws were technically broken, but would a parent teach their children or would a teacher teach his/her students to follow this example?

He has been investigated over and over again by his peers only to be protected by a newly appointed ethics committee that abruptly changed the rules to protect him. What are we coming to and when will these politicians wake up?

It is true that most Americans don't care or even want to know about this, but so many of our problems are rooted in this area. This is the birthplace and the shady world of how legislation is created and the veiled corruption that follows. Lobbyists and big time donors pay the bills in spite of their denials to the contrary and then the members of Congress show their gratitude with an implicit quid pro quo.

It has to stop. The few politicians that try to bring about change, John McCain and others, are tolerated, but stifled in their attempts to reform the ethics rules.

The money has to be taken out of politics.