CBO Says We Better Brace Ourselves For BIG CHANGES, Y'all!!

[happyg]

According to this, CBO's director Doug Elmendorf is warning Americans that the US faces "fundamental fiscal challenges" due to the growth in spending on entitlement programs.

This will probably be shocking news to a lot of liberals, if they bother to even acknowledge it.  As for the rest of us with Actual Brains, I think I can speak for the vast majority of us when I say, "This is news???"

Elmendorf said that the ways to deal with this issue are "unpleasant in one way or another, and we have not, as a society, decided how much of that sort of unpleasantness to inflict on whom."

Raise your hand if you vote for the unpleasantness to be inflicted on liberals who keep VOTING FOR THE EXPANSION OF THESE ENTITLEMENT PROGRAMS TO BEGIN WITH.

 Elmendorf further acknowledged that lots of us have paid into Social Security for years and years, expecting that it'll, you know, be there for us in retirement, which is the PURPOSE OF IT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.  But all that money we've been handing over with each paycheck was spent by the government on other stuff.  So, Elmendorf says, "If one wants to change those programs, then giving people a lot of warning about that -- those changes coming -- would be especially important."

Because THAT'll fix it.  Warnings.  That'll solve everything.

 To the surprise of no one, he also said that the debt we're amassing will slow wage and income growth, and that really, we need to be acting NOW, not just continually kicking the can down the road.

 But hey - Obama filled out his NCAA brackets, y'all.  Because PRIORITIES.

http://chicksontheright.com/posts/item/25565-cbo-says-we-better-brace-ourselves-for-big-changes-y-all

[rustynail]

Don't worry, be happy.

[happyg]

Don't worry, be happy.

I'm happy in name only. 

[aligncare]

I love chicks-on-the-right. They've got the best snark in town. They are "awesome."

As for the substance of the commentary, I hit the fatalism mode button a long time ago. My feelings today are best represented by that famous T-shirt philosophy: "Life sucks, then you die."

Good morning! Everyone.

[EC]

I love chicks-on-the-right. They've got the best snark in town. They are "awesome."

As for the substance of the commentary, I hit the fatalism mode button a long time ago. My feelings today are best represented by that famous T-shirt philosophy: "Life sucks, then you die."

Good morning! Everyone.

Morning!

As I used to use as a tagline elsewhere: "Shit happens. Then you flush."

[mountaineer]

But hey - Obama filled out his NCAA brackets, y'all.  Because PRIORITIES.

And he'll be on the Ellen Degeneres show today, so it's all good, yo.

[Oceander]

I have no illusions about social security - it won't be there when I retire - as far as I'm concerned, it's just one more income tax, a fairly regressive one at that.

[ABX]

I have no illusions about social security - it won't be there when I retire - as far as I'm concerned, it's just one more income tax, a fairly regressive one at that.

Ditto. At that, I don't have any illusions about even being able to retire in the traditional sense. I'll just work until I fall over.

[Oceander]

Ditto. At that, I don't have any illusions about even being able to retire in the traditional sense. I'll just work until I fall over.

as will I, no doubt

[aligncare]

I already fell over ... and, I, can't, seem, to, get, UP! Retirement? What's that?

[Gazoo]

Obama Schedule || Thursday, March 20, 2014

by KEITH KOFFLER on MARCH 19, 2014, 9:27 PM

11:00 am || Departs White House
1:25 pm || Arrives Orlando, Florida
2:00 pm || Takes part in a roundtable with Valencia College students and local workers; Valencia College, Orlando, Florida
3:45 pm || Departs Orlando, Florida
4:35 pm || Arrives Miami
5:10 pm || Attends a DNC fundraiser; private residence, Miami
7:35 pm || Delivers remarks and takes questions at a fundraiser for House Democrats; private residence, Miami
8:50 pm || Departs Miami
11:20 pm || Arrives White House

All times Eastern

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2014/03/19/obama-schedule-thursday-march-20-2014/

The usurper of laws, pen and blackberry E.O., inept, campaigner-in-chief   

[Gazoo]

Obama is so desperate to campaign and meet his quota for his failed BS Obamacare he does not even have daily security briefings.

[andy58-in-nh]

The usurper of laws, pen and blackberry E.O., inept, campaigner-in-chief   

Including the event scheduled for tonight, Obama will have held 50 fundraisers since the start of his second term.

Since he became President, Obama has played golf 163 times.

He has made well over 2000 speeches, remarks and comments.

Obama has made 32 international trips to 43 different countries.

He has taken at least 13 vacations in 32 months.

In sum, he's pretty much done everything but actually work.

[aligncare]

Well, he really wanted to be president of the world but the only open gig was in the United States. So he settled for that.

[andy58-in-nh]

Well, he really wanted to be president of the world but the only open gig was in the United States. So he settled for that.

The job is evidently so far beneath him that he must occupy his time with more engaging activities.

[rb224315]

Ditto. At that, I don't have any illusions about even being able to retire in the traditional sense. I'll just work until I fall over.

Same here.  I'm blessed to do something I really like, however, so the future could look a lot worse.

[speekinout]

SS is a huge fraud. It's a Ponzi scheme. No one paid into it for their own retirement; they paid for older people's retirements with a promise that young people would do the same for them when they got old. The trouble is that when SS started, retirement age was 65, and the average life span for men was something like 63. Now, full retirement age is something like 67, and the average lifespan for those who reach retirement age at all is more like 84.
There are many more collecting SS and fewer people paying in - that high unemployment rate sure does cut into FICA payments.

It's too bad we didn't face the problem earlier, but neither SS recipients nor lofos will even listen to the facts. And those are the two largest voter blocs, I think. We could have learned a lesson from Chile, and converted the program into a forced retirement savings program. Or we could have made it less attractive, but more sound, by raising the retirement age closer to 85 than to 65. But we didn't.

And I sure hope the people who claim they can't retire without SS are just being facetious and have taken advantage of one or more of the IRA options they have. Having your own retirement account sure beats having to beg the politicians to extract money from your kids and grandkids. 

[happyg]

I agree it's a Ponzi scheme, but the money was frittered away for things it wasn't intended. Until the early eighties, it paid for kids to go to college. As long as they were in college, the parents would also receive money. The government borrowed from it, putting it in such a precarious position.

[speekinout]

I agree it's a Ponzi scheme, but the money was frittered away for things it wasn't intended. Until the early eighties, it paid for kids to go to college. As long as they were in college, the parents would also receive money. The government borrowed from it, putting it in such a precarious position.

I think you're talking about SSI for the children of a deceased parent, and I'm pretty sure that's still available. As is SSDI for disabled people. Neither of those were in the original scheme. But that doesn't change the basic problems with the whole scheme.

[jmyrlefuller]

SS is a huge fraud. It's a Ponzi scheme. No one paid into it for their own retirement; they paid for older people's retirements with a promise that young people would do the same for them when they got old. The trouble is that when SS started, retirement age was 65, and the average life span for men was something like 63. Now, full retirement age is something like 67, and the average lifespan for those who reach retirement age at all is more like 84.
There are many more collecting SS and fewer people paying in - that high unemployment rate sure does cut into FICA payments.

It's too bad we didn't face the problem earlier, but neither SS recipients nor lofos will even listen to the facts. And those are the two largest voter blocs, I think. We could have learned a lesson from Chile, and converted the program into a forced retirement savings program. Or we could have made it less attractive, but more sound, by raising the retirement age closer to 85 than to 65. But we didn't.

And I sure hope the people who claim they can't retire without SS are just being facetious and have taken advantage of one or more of the IRA options they have. Having your own retirement account sure beats having to beg the politicians to extract money from your kids and grandkids.

 

I have no expectation that Socialist Security as we know it will be there by the time I reach that age, should I reach it. As a guy who has always tried to spend as little money as possible, that isn't a major concern for me. It's a bigger challenge, at least these days, finding work that pays well enough to put money away for "retirement" and at the same time doesn't cost so much in terms of education requirements to wipe out those gains.

[Fishrrman]

[[ According to this, CBO's director Doug Elmendorf is warning Americans that the US faces "fundamental fiscal challenges" due to the growth in spending on entitlement programs. ]]

IRS gonna be checkun up on dis guy next !!