Comprehensive Immigration Reform is really worse than amnesty!

Just what I said. SS (Social Security) should have included means testing. It is a government welfare program just like food stamps. Yet, people who are millionaires can still collect benefits. People may not like the idea, of SS being just like welfare. But, Social Security benefits are no different than food stamps, or any other federal transfer payment.

The funding comes from people who are required to pay into the federal government, and then the benefits go to people who qualify. This is just one example of SS being poorly designed. COLA increases in the 1970s are another. SS was also never intended to be anymore to a supplement to a retired person. However, that is not the way it was presented to the public and the way it was discussed in the media.

 

I was inferring that it was a well designed scam from the onset. In 1932, life expectancy was 63 meaning that over half of the people paying in were to receive nothing more than death benefits. The unintended consequence of a rising life expectancy made it a scam that backfired.
Do I agree with your vision of what is and should be, the answer is yes. The only change I would make is that it become voluntary and administered separately as any good charity may with perks to companies showing 100% enrollment.
As for the hyped "federal retirement program" aspect, fine, make it a law to put 7.5% of your paycheck into a 401K. Have your employer match it. If self employed, that's 15.3% just because we hate the self employed .3% more.

 

Source: http://www.ssa.gov/history/lifeexpect.html

 

OK, 54% then and 72% now according to their numbers, plus now picking up an extra 3 years of benefits after age 65. It still backfired. I can't find hard numbers, so to get it back to the 50% mark, I'm guessing 72 for retirement age? I have set my personal retirement goal to be 3 days before my funeral.

 

Increased life expectancy is part of the problem. But, people who were not born in the US can get benefits like SSI. It is on one of there forms, "under public law xyz" you can qualify has long as you have made a good faith effort to become a citizen", or words to that effect. There are all kinds of people who are not who they say they are, or managed to got benefits some other way. In other words, fraud and giving benefits to people who never paid into the system. Now the SSA is not going to be able to pay benefits to people who paid in most of their lives.

Notice no private audit of SSA precipitants has ever been done. The SSA does not want it known how poorly the program has been run over the yrs. All it would take is to make people come in a show their birth certificate, drivers license and social security card. They would have to do this if they wanted to continue to receive benefits. I noticed the state I live, recently made you show a birth certificate and SS card, in order to renew my drivers license. I don't think that's too much to ask.

 

Hiring and firing people is in my job description. As such, to hire someone I am required to verify both identity and citizenship status. Failure to do so is subject to a $10,000.00 fine (personal to me) plus my company can be hit with $250,000.00 in fines, and this is per incident. They use to print that on the cover of the Federal I-9 forms, but don't anymore for some reason. So why is it not a requirement for government benefits AND voting. The only answer I can come up with, is that it would get in the way of buying votes. Congress, as a whole, only concern is get re-elected. Why not, win the popularity contest and your a 1%'er before you know it. I think it attracts the wrong kind of people. I use to believe in my government and the civil servants working for it. Now, having dealings with them on various different levels, I can't anymore. The Social Security problem and immigration are problems of our own making, and some of it is intentional, mostly through politics and cutting some constituency a shady little deal.