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Social Security retirement age could jump as White House considers options

Greenbeard

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FoxNews reported yesterday that the Trump administration is exploring raising the retirement age as one way to avert the 24% cut to benefits coming in a few years.

Social Security retirement age could jump as White House considers options

Hmm, no thanks.

But Bisignano subsequently backtracked:


A little puzzling, though, as we're either getting benefit cuts (either for current retirees or future ones) or revenue increases. We're not going to "waste, fraud, and abuse" our way out of the gray tsunami.
 
The article is pure conjecture. There is no comments or evidence whatsoever other than this article saying the usual "reportedly".
As late as yesterday senior trump officials said no we will not raise the age.
 
iamwhatiseem said:
The article is pure conjecture. There is no comments or evidence whatsoever other than this article saying the usual "reportedly".
As late as yesterday senior trump officials said no we will not raise the age.
Click to expand...

Hopefully they make good on the promise to do nothing and let the 24% cut take effect in a few years.
 

I don’t see how they came up with a “need to increase payroll taxes by 3.65 percentage points” to avoid the projected 24% shortfall.

Increasing the SS FICA ‘payroll’ tax rate(s) from 6.2% to 7.75% (a 1.55 percentage point raise) would increase SS revenue by 25%.

Raising the SS ‘full benefit’ age or dropping the option to collect reduced SS benefits at age 62 would likely have more folks successfully apply for (and get) even higher SS disability benefits.
 
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I don't even need Social Security and I've been fighting all these decades for the people who do and they have screwed themselves.

 
Greenbeard said:
The FICA tax rate is 12.4%.
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Yep, which is split evenly (at 6.2%) between the employer and employee. In order to get 24% more SS revenue that 12.4% tax rate would only have to be increased by 2.98 percentage points.
 
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm, they already walked that back before you posted. But, I'm guessing you don't care.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Yep, which is split evenly (at 6.2%) between the employer and employee. In order to get 24% more SS revenue that 12.4% tax rate would only have to be increased by 2.98 percentage points.
Click to expand...

3.65 percentage points of payroll is what they calculate is needed to close the shortfall over the next 75 years, not just in 2034.
 
Greenbeard said:
3.65 percentage points of payroll is what they calculate is needed to close the shortfall over the next 75 years, not just in 2034.
Click to expand...

Once the ‘boomer bump’ is over, the SS ‘trust me’ fund is likely to start to grow again.
 
How can SS be surprised about demographics? It's not like people couldn't figure this out all along. And I'm not buying the life expectancy excuse. America's life expectancy is falling behind compared with the rest of the world. The real problem is SS kept adding benefits because it's more palatable than calling it 'welfare' which is what it really is. Now instead of cutting overly generous benefits they want to stick it to the everyday man.
 
dmpi said:
How can SS be surprised about demographics?
Click to expand...

Easily, after all, we’re talking about congress critters.

There are fewer current workers per current beneficiary and beneficiaries are collecting benefits for more years.


US life expectancy is rising.

United States: annual life expectancy 1850-2100| Statista

From the mid-19th century until today, life expectancy at birth in the United States has roughly doubled, from 39.4 years in 1850 to 79.6 years in 2025.
www.statista.com
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Yep, which is split evenly (at 6.2%) between the employer and employee. In order to get 24% more SS revenue that 12.4% tax rate would only have to be increased by 2.98 percentage points.
Click to expand...
The split between employer and employee is a smokescreen.

All of the contributions are paid for by the labor of the employee. It is all on the employee.
 
This problem has been known my entire adult life.

There hasn't been the will to solve it because there are those that want to privatize it and tap into trillions of dollars so they can earn billions in fees.
 
Is anyone surprised?

The government under Trump does not serve the people as much as it serves the billionaires.

Must have been what maga wanted. They voted for it.

But of course, anyone who did the least bit of digging would never vote for Trump. No problem for maga. They do not think for themselves. Maga is rumor driven. The rumors are started by right wing think tanks which are funded by billionaires. They figured out how to take political advantage of the peer pressure effect.

No facts required.

Give 'em somebody to look down on and they'll unwittingly support their own demise.

It is interesting how the left opposes concepts; but the right opposes classes of people.
 
dmpi said:
How can SS be surprised about demographics? It's not like people couldn't figure this out all along.
Click to expand...

They're not surprised. Trustees reports going back to 1992 have pegged the depletion of the trust fund in the late 2020s to mid 2030s. Boomers just never cared about finding a "solution" until now.
 
"Protecting and preserving"
 
Greenbeard said:
They're not surprised. Trustees reports going back to 1992 have pegged the depletion of the trust fund in the late 2020s to mid 2030s. Boomers just never cared about finding a "solution" until now.
Click to expand...

It’s not the last minute yet, so congress critters don’t care.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
It’s not the last minute yet, so congress critters don’t care.
Click to expand...

Nor the voters who spent the next 35 years chasing tax cuts. (I understand there's actually a groundswell of support these days among retired Boomers to eliminate property taxes, too, so the streak continues.)
 

Not gonna happen.

An issue that's radioactive as hell.
 
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