Disability Racket: $25b In Fraudulent Disability Filings
Then there’s the disability racket. Did you know that one out of every 20 people in America now claims disability? That adds up to $170billion a year in disability checks. Between 2005 and 2009, it is estimated that $25 billion were eaten up in fraudulent Social Security Disability Insurance filings. On and on, scam after scam it goes as always, taxpayers are the ones getting stiffed.
Five Ways Donald Trump Has Broken His Promise To Protect Social Security Medicare And Medicaid In His First 100 Days
Communications Director, Social Security Works
Donald Trump ran for president as a different kind of Republican. During the primary, he stood out from the crowd by promising to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. He went on to make that promise a centerpiece of his general election campaign.
Even before the election, there was good reason to be extremely skeptical of Trumps promise. After all, prior to running, he had called Social Security a Ponzi scheme, said that privatization would be good for all of us, and, in true elitist fashion, called for raising the retirement age to age 70, because how many times will you really want to take that trailer to the Grand Canyon? Moreover, he selected Mike Pence as his vice president. Pence has a long record of attacking Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Indeed, Pence criticized Bushs Social Security privatization proposal for not going far enough, fast enough!
It is clear that Trump understands how popular these programs are. Social Security has famously been called the third rail of politics go after it and your political career is dead. In a 2011 interview with Sean Hannity, Trump said he was on board with plans to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid but that Republicans should be very careful not to fall into the Democratic trap by doing it in the open, without bipartisan cover, or they would pay the price politically.
2.Appointing Anti-Social Security Mick Mulvaney as Budget Director
How Much Money Will A Payroll Tax Save You
Every payday, 7.65% of your wages are subtracted from your paycheck to fund Social Security and Medicare . Your employer pays an equivalent amount of tax . For 2020, the Social Security tax is only levied on the first $137,700 of earnings however, an additional 0.9% Medicare tax is collected on wages over $200,000 for the year.
Under the president’s executive order, your share of Social Security taxes won’t be taken out of your paycheck if your pre-tax bi-weekly salary is $4,000 or less. So, for example, someone making $10 per hour and working 40 hours per week will get about $25 more per week, or around $100 per month. From September through December, that will add up to about $446. A full-time worker making $15 per hour would get approximately $37 more per week, $149 more per month, and $670 by the end of the year. For someone making $25 per hour, the savings will be about $62 per week, $248 per month, and $1,116 through December.
Since the executive order doesn’t apply to bi-weekly wages above $4,000, the maximum tax deferral is $124 per week, which would add up to $2,232 from September 1 to December 31. The $4,000 cap also means that the $137,700 wage base limit for Social Security taxes doesn’t come into play.
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How Would Trump Approach Fixing Social Security If Reelected To A Second Term
Now for the big question: What happens to Social Security if Donald Trump is reelected as president?
While no one knows this answer with any certainty, we’ve been given a number of clues during his presidency to make logical guesses. Perhaps the biggest clue came in January 2020 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, host Joe Kernen asked Trump if “entitlements ever be on your plate?” to which the president replied, “At some point they will be.”
To be crystal clear, this doesn’t mean that Trump has decreed Social Security spending cuts are coming. However, it does raise eyebrows given the contrasting nature by which Democrats and Republicans have approached fixing Social Security’s imminent cash shortfall.
For instance, Democrats have predominantly been in favor of increasing revenue by raising or eliminating the earnings cap associated with the payroll tax. In 2020, all earned income between $0.01 and $137,700 is subjected to the payroll tax, with earnings beyond $137,700 exempted. Raising or eliminating this cap would require the well-to-do to pay more into the system.
Again, while Trump has not specifically said that spending cuts are going to happen, there is a good likelihood that outlay reductions would be how Trump would tackle Social Security’s imminent cash shortfall.
President Trump speaking to reporters on the White House lawn. Image source: Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian.
Factcheck: Yes Privatization Would Be Good For All Of Us
“The solution to the Great Social Security crisis couldn’t be more obvious: Allow every American to dedicate some portion of their payroll taxes to a personal Social Security account that they could own and invest in stocks andbonds. Federal guidelines would make sure that your money is diversified, that it is invested in sound mutual funds or bond funds, and not in emu ranches….Privatization would be good for all of us. Directing Social Security funds into personalaccounts invested in real assets would swell national savings, pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into jobs and the economy.”
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Did Trump’s Budget Include A $2 Trillion Cut For Medicare Medicaid And Social Security
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump said he wouldnt try to cut Medicare or Medicaid.
But his federal budget proposal broke that promise, according to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York City.
“He can’t talk about his own budget, where he threatened to cut $2 trillion from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” Jeffries said about Trump during an interview on CNNs State of the Union.
Trumps budget director, Mick Mulvaney, released the presidents federal budget proposal in February. The plan was met with little fanfare because Congress had already passed a two-year spending deal a few days earlier, making the presidential blueprint largely irrelevant.
Like any other budget proposal, Trumps showed where he wanted to spend money and where he didnt. Did he want to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid by $2 trillion?
Wheres $2 trillion from?
Jeffries spokesperson did not get back to us with information supporting his claim.
In a literal sense, Trumps budget did propose about $2 trillion in savings from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid over 10 years.
The majority of those savings about $1.4 trillion would come from Medicaid, according to projections from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
About $530 billion in savings would come from Medicare and $25 billion would come from Social Security. Collectively, that totals almost $2 trillion.
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What You Should Know About The Gop And Social Security
Whos to blame for this mess? Well, some Americans would point their fingers specifically at Republicans in Congress. While they absolutely do take some of the blame, the inaction by Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill makes them equally culpable in exacerbating Social Securitys problems.
When it comes to Republicans and Social Security, here are the four things you absolutely need to know.
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President Trumps Record On Social Security
In 2016, the president distinguished himself from other Republicans by promising to leave Social Security alone. Over the past four years, hes pretty much done just that.
There have been no Bush-like privatization plans from the Trump administration, no Simpson/Bowles-inspired murmings over cutting benefits or raising the full retirement age. Theres been no real plan to do much of anything. The Biden campaign ad is as close as theres been to a controversy, and even that misrepresents the presidents aims.
Should Trump win in November you can expect more of the same.
I haven’t seen anything discussed on Social Security reform, Andrew Biggs, a research fellow at the conservative-leaning think tank AEI told Forbes Advisor. The president has argued against any Social Security benefit cuts but hasn’t waded into how Social Security’s long-term funding should be secured.
While this should assuage any fears about changes to the Social Security status quo and soothe soon-to-be retirees worried about cuts to their monthly checks, its less than ideal that the Trump administration has no plans to shore up Social Securitys long-term finances.
I’ll Give Up My Social Security Leave It To Each Person
A: I’m OK with it. I would be willing to say I will not get Social Security.As a policy, I would leave it up to the people. Don’t forget they pay in, and maybe they do well, and maybe some people want it. But the fact is that there are people that truly don’t need it, and there are many people that do need it very, very badly.
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Fact Check: Trump Payroll Tax Cut Is Social Security Risk
BALTIMORE President Donald Trumps proposed payroll tax cut is a threat to Social Security no matter how he casts it.
During a news conference Wednesday, he insisted he could eliminate the tax if he were reelected, and do it without undercutting retirement benefits or greatly adding to the deficit. He said economic growth would offset the revenue losses.
That claim has little basis in reality.
He also pointed to a manufacturing boom during the coronavirus pandemic but there isnt one.
A look at some of his economic claims:
TRUMP: At the end of the year, the assumption that I win, Im going to terminate the payroll tax Well be paying into Social Security through the General Fund.
THE FACTS: Trump, in effect, has endorsed defunding Social Security by not providing an alternative source of revenues.
The risk is that this could destabilize an anti-poverty program that provides payments to roughly 65 million Americans. It also could force people to cut back on the spending that drives growth so they can save for their own retirement and health care needs if they believe the government backstop is in jeopardy.
A 12.4% payroll tax split between employers and workers funds Social Security, while a 2.9% payroll tax finances Medicare. These taxes raised $1.24 trillion last year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Over a 10-year period, Trumps idea would blow a $16.1 trillion hole in a U.S. budget that is already laden with rising debt loads.
The Average Retired Worker Benefit Could Be Cut By More Than $4300 In Less Than 15 Years
The good news, if theres a silver lining to pull out of this mess for seniors and future retirees, is that Social Security wont be bankrupt, even if Congress fails to act. Two of Social Securitys three sources of funding the 12.4% payroll tax on earned income and the taxation of benefits are recurring sources of revenue. As long as the American public continues to work, money will be flowing into the Social Security program for disbursement to eligible beneficiaries.
On the other hand, no money left in asset reserves would mean that the existing payout schedule, inclusive of cost-of-living adjustments, would no longer be sustainable. Translation: Benefit cuts would be necessary to maintain Social Securitys solvency for decades to come.
According to the latest Trustees report, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust would only be able to pay 76% of scheduled benefits once its coffers are cleaned out. Put another way, it means retired workers and survivors could face an across-the-board benefit cut of 24% by 2035.
Now, think about this for a moment. In May 2020, the Social Security Administration published data showing that the average retired worker was bringing home $1,512.63 a month. Thats $18,151.56 a year for the typical retiree. A 24% benefit cut would, in May 2020 dollars, equate to a benefit cut of $4,356 a year. Thats terrifying when you consider that 62% of retired workers rely on their monthly payout to account for at least half of their income.
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Trump White House Claim The Tax Relief Will Not Impact Social Security
On Sunday, as he boarded Marine One, Trump told reporters that the executive order deferring payroll taxes for some Americans will “have zero impact on Social Security.”
“We protect Social Security,” he added, according to Fox News.
An official from the White House told USA TODAY on Tuesday that the Social Security Trust Fund is not at risk, since payment deferral is only temporary, and at present, must be paid back early in 2021. The official confirmed, though, that the president called on Congress to make the deferral permanent, thereby eliminating the tax.
Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, an independent tax policy think tank, told USA TODAY that eliminating the tax is not the same as eliminating Social Security.
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“Strictly speaking, Social Security could be funded using general fund revenue or alternative revenue source, so terminating a tax and terminating a program are distinct things,” he wrote in an email.
“However, it would be reasonable to ask what would happen with the program absent an alternative plan to fund it,” Watson added.
On Wednesday, Trump suggested an alternate source for the first time the general fund of government revenues per Fox Business.
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Republicans Will Cut Social Security And Medicare After Tax Plan Passes Says Marco Rubio
Update | Florida Senator Marco Rubio admits that the Republican tax cut plan, which benefits corporations and the wealthy, will require cuts to Social Security and Medicare to pay for it.
To address the federal deficit, which will grow by at least $1 trillion if the tax plan passes, Congress will need to cut entitlement programs such as Social Security, Rubio told reporters this week. Advocates for the elderly and the poor have warned that entitlement programs would be on the chopping block, but this is the first time a prominent Republican has backed their claims.
Expect all the guests on the Sunday shows to be Republicans explaining how they now have no choice but to slash Social Security & Medicare because the deficit has suddenly and mysteriously gotten much worse.
Bruce Snarking and Barking Bartlett
You have got to generate economic growth because growth generates revenue, Rubio said at a Politico conference. But you also have to bring spending under control. And not discretionary spending. That isnt the driver of our debt. The driver of our debt is the structure of Social Security and Medicare for future beneficiaries.
Rubios talk of structural change is vague but will likely include changing the rate and age of Social Security and Medicare payouts.
So where does that money come from?
Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch said Thursday that liberal programs for the poor were wasting Americans money.
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