skeeter
Redblack you are correct. Social security isn’t “going broke” as my post said. My bad. It is facing a funding problem. The promised expenditures will exceed available funds in x number of years. (The x changes all the time but it will happen.) And I basically agree with you that the correction will either be increased revenues (taxes) or decreased benefits.
I feel like I’m sometimes mischaracterized on these forums. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I am a fan of social security. I think a mandatory safety net is in the best interest of our nation. George W Bush promised that he would address long-term social security solvency in his second term. That never happened. His second term was a disaster. So now we’ve waited another 4+ years. I hope that president Obama and Congress can somehow come to an agreement in the next two or so years. The longer we wait the more painful it will be.
Now the payroll tax holiday JoB brought up is interesting. For the past two years, the social security rate that employees paid has dropped from 6.2% to 4.2%. Everything I’ve read said that the jury was still out on whether that boosted the economy/jobs or not. Did we get a big “bang for our buck?” I don’t know. I’ll admit that my family has certainly benefited. With my wife and I both working full time, we each paid a lot less social security tax so our take home pay has increased. We’ve used the extra money to fund our daughter’s college 529 plan. I guess some people save that extra money and some spend it.
I’m curious if the cut will be extended for 2013. I put the odds at 30/70 in favor of it not being extended. What do other folks think?