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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (72349)	1/16/2000 12:23:00 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

From this list, SSI at the bottom (which is more like a welfare program) doesn't come from the SS trust... then there is the family benefits issue, which mostly has to do with the non-working spouse payouts which you pretty much have to have - same with disability. The only real fluff from this list is the survivor benefits I would say. You aren't going to get too far trying to cut the "waste" from SS without touching the retirement age and benefits of the core recipients, is my point. It is the core beneficiaries who are getting the windfall here, somebody has to deal with that. If you cut the current 15% ss taxes down to say, 8% total (4/4 match employee/employer), then maybe a small tax increase could be a go for some other stuff like the military if need be. But the bottom line is that without cutting SS taxes, almost no other tax increases on the young are really possible, since they already pay the 30% fed + state tax + 7/15% fica + medicare - the whole thing is over 40%. The other option to raise taxes for the military is an increase in capital gains.

To: Neocon who wrote (72349)	1/17/2000 2:21:00 AM
From: nihil	Respond to of 108807

Exactly my point. OASI and DI are paid from the SS Trust fund (all pension benefits based on earnings), and Medicare is paid from the Medicare trust fund (the same.) SSI is not paid from social security (fica taxes). You should read to the end of your quotations: SSI benefits are not paid from Social Security trust funds and are not based on past earnings. Instead, SSI benefits are financed by general tax revenues and assure a minimum monthly income for elderly and disabled persons.