l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 But worry not you ingrates! ObamaCare will be awesome, and in no way will
the government screw up those payments. From the AP via The Macomb Daily:
The Social Security Administration made $6.5 billion in overpayments to
people not entitled to receive them in 2009, including $4 billion under a
supplemental income program for the very poor, a government investigator
said Tuesday.
In all, about 10 percent of the payments made by the agency's Supplemental
Security Income program were improper, said Patrick P. O'Carroll Jr., the
inspector general for Social Security. The program has strict limits on
income and assets, and most of the overpayments went to people who did not
report all their resources, O'Carroll said.
...Social Security also made nearly $1.5 billion in underpayments, raising
the total amount of improper payments to $8 billion in the 2009 budget year,
O'Carroll said.
Lovely. If you read through the whole thing, one excuse given is that $9
billion is miniscule in the grand scheme of things. No - really! A billion
here, a billion there and soon we're talking some real money! Worse yet,
even if they put a band aid on this, it won't amount to a hill of beans to
the debt. Why? From a prior post, Pic of the Day: The Only Chart You Need To
See To Understand Why The US Is Screwed, for the first time in our history
just entitlement spending by itself is greater than all federal tax revenues
combined:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-wYDwhar0yQk/TWr70ni8ipI/AAAAAAAAJxc/Xu673
-64kJg/s1600/usa-income-statement.jpg
There's a simple solution to the problem and I wrote specifically to that
effect last August: What we need right now - the "Entitlement Sustainability
and Constitutionality Act"
Break up social security into 50 pieces. The states would collect the tax
for it and be responsible for its long-term viability.
Break up Medicare into 50 pieces. The states would collect the tax for it
and be responsible for its long-term viability.
Stop federal Medicare reimbursements. The states will have to run the
program 100% by themselves.
Stop federal welfare reimbursements. The states will have to run welfare 100
% by themselves.
It's a simple solution, and far easier than messing with the retirement age
or raising taxes, but it won't happen for one simple reason: federal
politicians abhor parting with graft. |
|
