Goose
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thread 1/11
We need to change the way we talk about Social Security. I’ve seen countless posts about how Republicans are trying to steal people’s money: that we paid money in, and are entitled to get our own money back. There’s conceptual truth to that, but it doesn’t describe how Soc. Security actually works.
04:59 PM - Mar 12, 2024 (Edited)
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Goose
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thread 2/11
Your benefit is based on a formula that varies depending on how much you earned when you contributed to Social Security, and is meant to replace a certain percentage of your earnings. It isn’t linked to your specific contributions; it’s tied to the amount of time you worked and how much you earned.
04:59 PM - Mar 12, 2024
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thread 3/11
People’s benefits are based on that formula, but they aren’t actually entitled to receive more than the amount in the social security fund (and in fact, it is illegal for the government to borrow to pay it if the SS trust fund isn’t enough). In a very real sense, it is not your money.
04:59 PM - Mar 12, 2024
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thread 4/11
But people very clearly do pay in with the expectation of being able to collect. The problem is that as our population lives longer and as we have fewer people working, the amount of contributions the government collects each year is less than the promised benefits.
04:59 PM - Mar 12, 2024
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thread 5/11
We ran a surplus for decades, and draining it lets us keep paying 100% benefits for now. After 2034, it will be gone, and we can only pay out benefits equal to contributions we collect each year, which are only 80% of what we need to pay full benefits.
04:59 PM - Mar 12, 2024
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thread 6/11
Republicans aren’t trying to take the money people paid and spend it on something else. They’re trying to slow the drain on the social security trust fund and make social security solvent, but they’re trying to do it without making rich people pay more in taxes, because they’re misanthropes.
04:59 PM - Mar 12, 2024
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thread 7/11
Democrats are trying to increase taxes on the wealthy to make up the shortfall. But doing nothing will mean a 20% cut in benefits across the board. And cutting benefits or raising contributions are the only two options to fix that.
04:59 PM - Mar 12, 2024
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Goose
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thread 8/11
Anyway, it’s not that calling what Republicans are doing “theft” is *that* far off from the truth. They’re planning to disappoint the expectations that workers reasonably had when they contributed, by altering the benefits formula.
04:59 PM - Mar 12, 2024
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Goose
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thread 9/11
But I think treating it like they are stealing money that people contributed gives the false impression that if we just left things along, those people would get their social security benefits. They won’t. Making zero changes to the law would mean a 20% cut in benefits in the next decade.
04:59 PM - Mar 12, 2024
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Goose
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thread 10/11
Right now, Trump accidentally accurately describing what Republicans want to do is a huge political opportunity, and I get that, but I don’t want folks to think that stopping the Republicans from passing funding cuts fixes the problem. There’s a funding crisis coming and we need to deal with it.
04:59 PM - Mar 12, 2024
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thread 11/11
Sorry—someone replied with something that’s very true: that Republicans hate social security and want to kill it. Please don’t mistake anything I say for saying their motives are good. I’m saying only that describing benefits cuts as thefts masks the very real funding problem that we need to fix.
05:39 PM - Mar 12, 2024 (Edited)
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Claudia Citro
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@goose

I agree with much of what you state here. Is it also tru that the GOP wants to allow Wall Street to invest SSA assets? And hasn’t the government ‘borrowed’ from SSA in the past?
In response to Goose.
05:13 PM - Mar 12, 2024
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