Smoke And Mirrors

Over the course of years the Republicans has slowly been trying to privatize Social Security. Touting the virtues of 401k’s and Roth IRA’s how we should not have to give the government our hard earned money, only to have them give it back to us.

“Not only did Senator McCain support privatized Social Security in a March 3 interview with the Wall Street Journal, but in 2006 he voted to shift Social Security’s annual surpluses into a reserve account that would be converted into private accounts. [S. Con. Res., Vote #68, 3/16/06]. Earlier in his Senate career, McCain voted twice to replace Social Security’s guaranteed benefits with income from risk-based private investments. [S. Con. Res., Vote #56, 4/1/98; S. Con. Res., Vote #77, 4/1/98](Alliance for Retired Americans)

Now McCain says…

John McCain will fight to save the future of Social Security and believes that we may meet our obligations to the retirees of today and the future without raising taxes. John McCain supports supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts -- but not as a substitute for addressing benefit promises that cannot be kept… (John McCain for Prsident)

There are a lot of words there, but what does he actually mean? What does they mean by “John McCain supports supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts…” they has no details of what they mean by that. Does he still mean that he want to start privatizing Social Security? It is all smoke and mirrors.

I retired last year in June and have been living off my IRA’s and 401k’s, I had saved up enough to earn 2/3rd of my former pay and I figured that would be enough until I reached 66 1/2 to start receiving Social Security and my pension. However, this week I saw a 30% drop in my savings and I am to a point where I have to consider that I may have to go back to work. Who would want to hire a 60 year old tranny? I think my job prospects are near zero! Will it mean that I will have to drop out of college?

Obama web site says…

Obama does not support uncapping the full payroll tax of 12.4 percent rate. Instead, he is considering plans that would ask those making over $250,000 to pay in the range of 2 to 4 percent more in total (combined employer and employee). This change to Social Security would start a decade or more from now and is similar to the rate increases floated by John McCain’s close adviser Senator Lindsey Graham and that McCain has previously said he “could” support. (Barack Obama and Joe Biden: The Change We Need)

I support that plan, instead of forcing people to invest in personal savings accounts. I understand the different types of investments and I have one of the top rated brokers firms (so far it hasn’t going under, knock on wood), plus I only invested to highly rated investments and I still lost close to a third of my investments this week. How would the average person faired if their retirement rested on their ability to make sound investments?

Many people earn only enough to live on and to ask them to begin to save for their retirement when they came not live on what they are making now is ridiculous. They can’t afford to put a food on the table, they can’t afford to put a roof over their heads, they can’t afford medical insurance and then to ask them to save for the future is unrealistic.