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109th Congress Begins Today

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Tue Jan 04, 2005 at 07:35:43 AM EST
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Our elected officials in Congress get back to work today as the 109th Congress officially opens. On the agenda: More aid for Tsunami victims.

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    109th Congress Begins Today | 9 comments (9 topical)
    Re: 109th Congress Begins Today (none / 0) (#1)
    by cp on Tue Jan 04, 2005 at 09:18:50 AM EST
    while i agree that help for the tsunami victims is important, there are other issues at stake, which will have much longer lasting consequences for all u.s. citizens, and those shouldn't be ignored. the attempted privatization of the social security trust fund is one of those. send letters or e-mails to your sen./rep., asking why they have not repudiated the lies of the administration and the republican congress, with respect to this issue.

    Re: 109th Congress Begins Today (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 04, 2005 at 11:30:27 AM EST
    Also save the filibuster!

    Re: 109th Congress Begins Today (none / 0) (#3)
    by desertswine on Tue Jan 04, 2005 at 01:17:26 PM EST
    Good point, cp.

    Re: 109th Congress Begins Today (none / 0) (#4)
    by pigwiggle on Tue Jan 04, 2005 at 01:28:32 PM EST
    cp- I am loath to rehash this, but what exactly is your solution to the impending social security crisis? SS is bankrupt and future taxpayers cannot be saddled with the benefits promised to retiring baby boomers.

    Re: 109th Congress Begins Today (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 05, 2005 at 05:23:48 AM EST
    Call your representative and tell them the first order of business is to pass the 13 annual appropriations bills required by law. This is one of the core responsibilties of the Congress and they have failed repeatedly over the last decade to get this job done on time.

    Re: 109th Congress Begins Today (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 05, 2005 at 06:17:28 AM EST
    Solution to SS solvency? Uh, remove the $80K cap on income subject to the tax, then let's crunch the numbers and talk.

    Re: 109th Congress Begins Today (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 05, 2005 at 10:40:06 AM EST
    Right on, conscious angel! I'll vote for that!

    Re: 109th Congress Begins Today (none / 0) (#8)
    by pigwiggle on Wed Jan 05, 2005 at 10:50:15 AM EST
    CA- In 13 years SS will need to tap into its empty savings. Taxpayers will repay these savings in addition to the taxes already taken out for SS. This will amount to an average of an additional $192/worker/year in 2018 ramping up to $1,976/worker/year in 2042 when the ‘savings’ will be gone; remember, this is just to pay back the IOUs in the SS savings acount. If your suggestion, eliminating the tax cap, were put in place today we would push the insolvency date from 2018 to 2024. Contrary to common belief there just aren’t that many people making that kind of money, certainly not enough to support baby boomer retirement. For demographic information and analysis look here. If we eliminated SS for kids born in 2003 there is a $26 trillion UNFUNDED mandate. This is the deficit between projected tax revenues at current rates and projected beneficiary benefits. Your suggestion would raise a projected $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. So, for that 2003 baby we would only raise about $10 trillion by the end of his/her average lifespan; a deficit of $16 trillion. However, this is an optimistic number. The tax hike you propose would be the largest single tax hike ever. This will certainly impact the economy in a negative way potentially lowering the projected revenue cited. There are other revenue sources; a portion of SS tax is currently diverted to Medicare. Cato has identified $87 billion annual corporate welfare benefits that should be cut. A real investment of SS dollars would result in real returns. Currently the federal government borrows against SS by issuing bonds. Taxpayers get the shaft two ways; an empty SS savings and a debt on these bonds. We will end up paying these dollars twice; to the beneficiaries and bondholders. Here is another good analysis.

    Re: 109th Congress Begins Today (none / 0) (#9)
    by kdog on Thu Jan 06, 2005 at 05:52:31 AM EST
    Here is to hoping they don't do too much damage this session. My pipe dream for all of Congress, think of all your constituents, not just the big campaign contributors and your inner circle. A man can dream.

    109th Congress Begins Today | 9 comments (9 topical)