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Originally Posted by Kadath
All right, onetime. What is YOUR solution to fix Social Security?
"The reason the government can't "enforce" the tax laws is the many loopholes inherent in every law, the relatively few enforcement officials the government can employee, the multitude of highly paid professionals from CPAs to lawyers who make a living from exploiting every possible loophole, and, of course, the years of litigation necessary for many of such enforcement actions."
I don't think throwing up our hands and saying we can't force the rich to pay taxes is very useful. Again, what's your plan? Shouldn't we be trying to collect the money owed us?
"And, lastly, the troops can not just rotate home for "work" since they're "working" at Homeland Security. Unless of course he is proposing some deranged sort of National Guard/civilian employment timeshare which would almost certainly lead to decreased productivity in both occupations."
I don't know how open your mind is to this idea given that you described it as "deranged." Perhaps we had better just not argue about that one.
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The way we fix it is by forcing the government to clean their accounting house. The baby boomers paid into social security and were promised support for when they retired. Our wonderful elected officials saw a pristine piggy bank overflowing with cash. While they have not yet failed to follow through on their guarantee to those who paid in, there is virtually no one who believes it can remain as is.
I am intrigued by the idea of taking some money out to "invest" and earn a return on but don't believe that is the sole answer (it may not even be one that I would support since I am bothered by the risk associated with it). That risk is mitigated however by the growing likelihood that our government will not address the problem in a significant way and they will either fail to pay the seniors they owe or that money will go straight to national debt.
Prioritization of expenditures is long overdue in the federal government. Do we need another Big Dig or do we need to meet our committments to the elderly? Do we need to fund more pharmaceutical research or do we need to insure that our seniors can eat or have a roof over their heads?
The solution is simple but the follow through for it is virtually impossible in the current political climate. Voters expect politicians to lie to them and to spend too much of their money. They've come to accept it and that's what we need to change.
On the private side, we need to do more to encourage retirement savings so social security isn't the primary income for most retirees. A lot has been done in this area (401ks, IRAs, etc) but more can be done. Tax cuts which only apply if the refunds are directly deposited into retirement savings accounts that can't be touched until retirement would certainly contribute toward that end.
As far as the National Guard and Reserves, you're right my mind isn't open to the idea because it does not address the supposed concern that Kerry has of our military being too stretched. Taking them from one area of responsibility and putting them in another doesn't alleviate the strain. Throw in the prospect of working at both a civilian job and working off your military commitment and you're talking about more of a stretch, not less.