WELCOME TO OPINIONS BASED
ON FACTS (OBOF)
&
THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (TYMHM)
YEAR THREE
Name
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Published
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OVERVIEW
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 14
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Dec
18, 2012
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 15
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Jan. 02, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 16
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Jan. 08, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 16 EXTRA
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Jan. 11, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 17
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Jan. 15, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 18
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Jan. 22, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 19
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Jan. 29, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 20
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Feb. 05, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 21
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Feb. 14, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 22
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Feb. 20, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 23
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Feb. 27, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 23 SPECIAL
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Mar. 06, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 24
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Mar. 07, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 25
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Mar. 12, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 25-EXTRA
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Mar. 14, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 26
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Mar. 19, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 27
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Mar. 26, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 28
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Apr. 02, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 29
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Apr. 08, 2013
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IN THIS
ISSUE
1. What is "Chained CPI" and why is it
bad for SS.
2. Grand Bargain could be Grand Sell Out.
3. Senate on record opposing "Chained
CPI."
4. Social Security is here to stay.
5. Too big to jail.
6. Wall Street Hogs still running.
7. Personal note.
What’s the
‘Chained CPI,’ Why it’s Bad for Social Security, and Why the White House Shouldn’t
be Touting it
Robert Reich
NationofChange
Published: Saturday 6 April 2013
The White House and prominent Democrats are talking about
reducing future Social Security payments by using a formula for adjusting for
inflation that’s stingier than the current one. It’scalled the “Chained CPI.” I
did this video so you can understand it — and understand why it’s so
wrongheaded.
Even Social Security’s current inflation adjustment
understates the true impact of inflation on the elderly. That’s because they spend 20 to 40 percent of
their incomes on health care, and health-care costs have been rising faster
than inflation. So why adopt a new inflation adjustment that’s even stingier
than the current one?
Social Security benefits are already meager for most
recipients. The median income of Americans over 65 is less than $20,000 a year.
Nearly 70 percent of them depend on
Social Security for more than half of this. The average Social Security benefit is less
than $15,000 a year.
Besides, Social Security
isn’t in serious trouble. The Social
Security trust fund is flush for at least two decades.
THIS IS A MISTAKE. That which is in black is Floyd: I am truly surprised that Robert Reich would
say this. The truth of the matter is, and
it has been proven as fact, the SS Trust Fund has nothing in it that is of any
financial value. Since 1987, every
President and Congress, starting with Reagan, has used all the surplus money,
that is suppose to be in the Trust Fund, to help finance wars and other
government programs. This amounts to
$2.7 trillion. That which is in the
Trust Fund is a stack of Special Government Bonds that do not draw interest and
have no financial value whatsoever. They
are simply IOUs and are there for accounting purpose only.
If we want to ensure it’s
there beyond that, there’s an easy fix — just lift the ceiling on income
subject to Social Security taxes, which is now $113,700.
Why are Democrats even suggesting the inflation
adjustment be reduced? Republicans
aren’t asking for it. Not even Paul
Ryan’s draconian budget includes it.
Democrats invented Social Security and have been
protecting it for almost 80 years. They
shouldn’t be leading the charge against it.
~~~
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Grand bargain could be grand sellout
By Senator Bernie Sanders.
Dear
Floyd,
Thank you for standing with me in opposing any budget deal which includes the “chained CPI,” or any benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the needs of our veterans. I thought you might want to see my recent op-ed for The Hill, which discusses the current debate in Please forward this email to your friends and family. Ask them to read the article below and to sign our petition, which states, "No Budget Deal on the Backs of the Elderly, the Children, the Sick and the Poor." Thank you for all that you do in fighting to protect the middle class. Sincerely, Senator Bernie Sanders |
The media appear fixated about when and if a so-called “grand bargain” on our economy will be reached. Wrong question! The question we should be asking is: What should be in a “grand bargain” that works for the average American? At a time when the middle class is disappearing, 46 million Americans are living in poverty and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider, we need a “grand bargain” that protects struggling working families, not billionaires. With corporate profits at record-breaking levels while the effective corporate tax is at its lowest level since 1972, and 1 out of 4 profitable corporations pays nothing in federal income taxes, we need a grand bargain that ends corporate loopholes and demands that corporate America starts helping us with deficit reduction. We must not balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. We must not cut Social Security, disabled veterans’ benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, Education and other programs that provide opportunity and dignity to millions of struggling American families. Before we pass a grand bargain, we have got to take a hard and sober look at what’s happening economically in our country today. In doing so, we must acknowledge that the The distribution of income is even worse. If you can believe it, the last study on the subject showed that all of the new income gained from 2009-2011 went to the top 1 percent. ALL of the new income! In That’s the economic reality facing a large majority of our people, and that’s what has to be taken into consideration when we discuss deficit reduction and a “grand bargain.” As a member of the Senate Budget Committee, here are my priorities: We need a budget that puts millions of Americans back to work in decent-paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and transforming our energy sector away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy and energy efficiency. We need a budget that keeps the promises we have made to our seniors, veterans and the most vulnerable by protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. We need a budget that makes sure that the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations pay their fair share of taxes. We must end corporate loopholes that allow Wall Street banks, large corporations and the wealthy to avoid more than $100 billion a year in federal taxes by stashing their profits in the A federal budget is not just a set of numbers. It is a value statement of what we, as a nation, stand for. We must fight for a grand bargain that stands for justice, opportunity and the needs of our middle class. We must reject any approach that continues the economic assault on working families.
~~~
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SENATE ON
RECORD
OPPOSE
"CHAINED CPI."
Dear Floyd,
You didn't hear about it in the corporate media, but last week U.S. Senator and progressive powerhouse Bernie Sanders officially got the Senate on record opposing the use of chained CPI to calculate Social Security and veterans' benefits. We finally have some momentum to stop chained CPI. Now, let's keep building on it. Please click here to join Daily Kos and Sen. Bernie Sanders in demanding that the White House and House of Representatives say NO to benefit cuts for Social Security recipients and disabled vets. Chained CPI is a different measure for calculating inflation which, over time, would cut Social Security and veterans' benefits by thousands of dollars per year, per recipient. It's an idea supported by Republicans and, unfortunately, by President Obama and some Democrats. However, last week during the floor debate on the federal budget, the Sanders amendment opposing the use of chained CPI passed on a voice vote without a single senator speaking up and objecting. While the amendment is non-binding, it's still significant because now an entire branch of Congress is on record opposing these backdoor cuts to Social Security and veterans' benefits. Passing this amendment is a step forward, but we have a lot more work to do. Please join Daily Kos and Sen. Bernie Sanders in demanding that the White House and House of Representatives say NO to benefit cuts for Social Security recipients and disabled vets. Thank you for all that you do. -Ben Ben Eisenberg, Friends of Bernie Sanders
~~~
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Social Security is here to stay
About George
George Sisti, CFP, is a
certified financial planner practitioner and the founder of On Course Financial
Planning, a fee-only Registered Investment Advisor firm. George graduated with a BS in Mathematics from
the State University
of New York United States US
NOTE FROM FLOYD:
About
80% of this article is true. However,
there is a 20% that is misunderstood and needs clarification. That clarification is provided in comments at
the end of the article, by Dr. Allen W. Smith.
Dr. Smith has spent almost all his time the past twelve years Champion
Social Security. He was the first to
uncover what has really happened to the Social Security Trust Fund. What he has uncovered is true and
acknowledged on the floor of the Senate, in no uncertain terms, by Senator Tom
Colburn of Oklahoma
My Aunt Julia didn't pay much
attention to politics. The only
political statement I ever heard her say was "Don't touch my Social!"
She said it loud and she said it often.
Social Security provides retirement and survivor benefits to 46 million
Americans. In 2010 it was the only
source of income for 20% of retirees and provided more than half of total income
for 50% of retired couples and 75% of non-married retirees.
Congress passed the Social Security Act of 1935 to create a safety net to
prevent the financial devastation experienced by many elderly Americans during
the Great Depression. The American public was divided on the objectives for the
proposed program. Should benefits be
based on a worker's contributions or should the program provide equal benefits
for all? Eventually, Social Security
combined both features. Benefits are
proportional to a worker's pre-retirement earnings but replace a higher
percentage of earnings for lower wage earners.
Social Security is funded primarily through a 12.4% FICA payroll tax.
Workers and employers each pay 6.2%. If you're self-employed, you pay both
portions. For the past several decades,
FICA tax revenues have exceeded benefit payments and the surplus has been
invested in interest-bearing, special issue U.S.
Social Security benefits are funded by pay-as-you-go financing, meaning
that current benefits are paid from current tax revenue. Consequently, unlike
traditional pension plans, its ability to pay benefits is not affected by the
ups and downs of financial markets.
Each year, the Social Security's board of trustees presents a report to
Congress containing an actuarial look at Social Security's financial health and
its ability to pay promised benefits for the next 75 years. This gives Congress an early warning of
potential problems and time to consider appropriate solutions. Changes can be
phased in gradually, giving those most affected by the changes time to plan
accordingly. The last few Trustees'
reports show that Social Security's finances have deteriorated in recent years;
creating doubts about the dependability of benefits and causing undue alarm
among many retirees.
Although Social Security has paid out more in benefits than it has received
in FICA taxes for the last three years, other sources of revenue made up the
shortfall. The U.S.
In 2012, the trust fund contained $2.7 trillion in U.S.
FICA taxes are insurance premiums that allow you to qualify for benefits
when an insured event occurs. Any
observer of our dysfunctional defined contribution retirement system, who
believes that workers would be better off depending less on Social Security and
more on their investing prowess, is delusional.
Another silly notion is that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. This is
nonsense. A Ponzi scheme is a deception,
a lie. The money is not invested as
promised but stolen from its victims. Social Security is open and transparent
and publishes an annual report detailing its financial health. It has paid benefits on a timely basis for 78
years despite depression, recession, war, inflation and deflation. Frankly,
Social Security is in better financial shape than most of its beneficiaries.
Just like rock 'n' roll, Social Security is here to stay. It will play an important part in every baby
boomer's retirement. It is politically
inevitable that the post 2033 funding shortfall will be fixed by tweaking
revenue and benefits. Most benefit cuts will be borne by younger workers, not
people who are receiving, or soon to receive, benefits.
If you are in or near retirement, don't minimize the importance or the
reliability of your Social Security benefits in your retirement planning.
Allen Smith
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), on March 16, 2011, said during
a senate speech, “Congresses under both
Republican and Democrat control, both Republican and Democrat presidents, have
stolen money from social security and spent it. The money’s gone. It’s been used for another
purpose.” In so doing, he
broke the sacred code of silence about the misuse of Social Security funds that
has been in effect ever since the Reagan administration began using Social
Security revenue for non-Social Security purposes in 1985.
Please view this video from the CBS Tampa
Allen W. Smith, Ph.D., ironwoodas@a0l.com
1-800-840-6812
Allen Smith
This is a well-intentioned article, and I'm sure the
author believes what he is saying. Unfortunately, he is very misinformed
like most Americans. I have devoted the past 12 years to researching and
writing about Social Security funding, and the true status of the program is
very different from what the author reports.
It is true that the 1983 payroll tax hike did generate
$2.7 trillion in surplus revenue that was supposed to be saved and invested in
marketable U.S.
They are not marketable and could not be sold to anyone
even for a penny on the dollar so they cannot be used to pay benefits.
After 30 years of annual surpluses, Social Security began running deficits in
2010, and the government has been borrowing money to make up the
difference.
I invite readers to visit my website at www.thebiglie.net for
a lot more information about the true status of Social Security.
Allen W. Smith, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, Emeritus,
Eastern Illinois University
~~~
TO BIG TO JAIL
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~~~
Wall
Street Hogs Still Running
Jim Hightower
NationofChange
/ Op-Ed
Published: Wednesday 3 April 2013
ABOUT Jim Hightower
National radio commentator,
writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even
A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades
battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be -
consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
Wall Street is a beast.
And proud of it! In fact, a pair of animals, are the stock
market's longtime symbols: One is a snorting bull, representing surging stock
prices; the other is a bear, representing a down market devouring stock value.
But I recently received a letter from a creative fellow
named Charles saying that we need a third animal to depict the true nature of
the Wall Street beast: a hog. Not just a
little piggy, writes Charles — but a HOG, a really big one.
Yes! And we could
name it "Jamie." Jamie Dimon — I mean the multimillionaire,
silver-haired, golden-tongued CEO of JPMorgan
Chase , America
For years, Dimon has
wallowed in the warm glow of America
But, suddenly last summer, a big "oink" erupted
from Chase, and Jamie's inner hoggishness was revealed. It started when one of Chase's investment arms
went awry and lost $2 billion. At first, Dimon haughtily dismissed this as
"a tempest in a teapot." But the loss of investors' money soon grew
to a staggering $6 billion dollars. Criminal probes began, investors squirmed,
media coverage grew testy, and then came the revelation that took all the
glitter off of Dimon.
On March 14, a U.S.
JPMorgan's mess stems from the same dangerous combo that
rocked America's financial system in 2007 and crashed our economy: ethical rot
in executive suites, sycophantic politicians and reporters and willfully blind
regulators. Meanwhile, Jamie is still
Boss Hog at the giant bank and still drawing millions of dollars in annual pay
and perks.
Also, only one week after the Senate report came out, he
was even given a media award for best 2012 performance by a CEO facing a
corporate crisis. E-I-E-I-O!
For a better performance on containing banker narcissism,
our lawmakers might look to Europe . I know that it's considered un-American to
like anything those "namby-pamby" European nations do, but still:
Let's hear it for the Swiss!
In a March 3 referendum, the mild-mannered,
pacifist-minded Swiss people rose up and hammered their corporate executives
who've been grabbing rip-off pay packages, despite having made massive
financial messes.
Two-thirds of voters emphatically shouted "yes"
to a maverick ballot proposal requiring that shareholders be given the binding
say on executive pay. Violators of the
new rules would sacrifice up to six years of salary and face three years in
jail. That's hardly namby-pamby.
Indeed, America
It's no surprise, then, that those bankers have gone
right back to scamming — and gleefully enriching themselves. Hardly a week goes by without another
revelation of big-bank fraud, yet the banks simply pay an inconsequential fine
and the culprits skate free.
Forget about too-big-to-fail, banks have become "too
big to jail." Our nation's top prosecutor, Attorney General Eric Holder,
recently conceded that finagling financial giants are being given a pass:
"It does become difficult for us to prosecute them," he told a Senate
subcommittee, "when we are hit with indications that if we do prosecute —
if we do bring a criminal charge — it will have a negative impact on the
national economy."
Meanwhile, just four giants — Bank of America , Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Wells
Fargo
~~~
PERSONAL NOTE
I don't want to bore you with my
personal problems and I have put this at the end so you don't have to read it,
if you would rather not.
My Son, who is 62, had a knee
replacement about a month ago. He was
doing quite well until one day he had a real bad fall. How, doesn't matter. It was bad enough that he tore open about 1
1/2" of the incision. Had to go to
hospital and have it re stapled. We
thought that was all there was to it.
About a week later his surgeon called
and wanted to see his knee. They took
X-rays and found his knee cap had been pushed 2" above where it is suppose
to be and he tore some tendons. He had
to have surgery again which was much worse that the first one. After surgery they could not control the pain
with all the different pain medicine they have, even with full doses. They finally gave him, what they called, a
block. That is everything they give you before
surgery except the part that put you to sleep.
That worked.
He was doing pretty good at home for
about a week after the surgery, but then the pain got real bad again and he
over dosed on his pain medicine. It shut
down his kidneys from working and he was really out of it. As of this minute, 11:10 on Monday, the 8th
of April, he is in intensive care. I'm
sure they will get him going again, but it is rather upsetting, to say the
least.
~~~
It the good Lord is willing and the
creek don't rise, I talk with you again next Tuesday, April 16, 2013.
God Bless You All
&
God Bless the United States of America
Floyd
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