Social Security

Paper instructions:
the assignment here is to reply to the two posted discusses of my fellow classmates.  at least (1) APA reference is required per reply.

1)  Passion Wrote:
Social Security. As far as we care to look into the future, Social Security spending will rise relative to our national income and will do so almost continuously under any set of reasonable assumptions. Currently, spending on Social Security equals about 10.2 percent of the nation’s total taxable payroll. Under the SSA’s intermediate forecast, by the time today’s 18-year-olds reach retirement age in 2050, spending will equal 16.8 percent of payroll – an increase of more than two-thirds. Social Security Plus Medicare Hospital Insurance. Social Security is not the only elderly entitlement, however. Future workers will also have to pay for Medicare. Medicare Part A, or Hospital Insurance (HI), primarily pays for hospital bills.

Currently, spending on Social Security and Medicare Part A combined equals 12.7 percent of payroll. According to the SSA’s intermediate forecast, by 2050 spending on Social Security and Medicare Part A will swell to 21.7 percent of payroll. “By mid-century, the federal government will need almost a third of workers’ incomes just to pay benefits for the elderly already included in current law.”

Social Security Plus Total Medicare. Medicare Part B, or Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI), covers physicians’ fees and other outpatient expenses. It is funded by beneficiaries’ premium payments (about 25 percent) and a subsidy from the federal government’s general revenues (about 75 percent). The calculations included herein assume that beneficiary premiums will continue to cover 25 percent of Part B costs and that Part B expenses will grow at the same rate as Part A expenses. Further, in order to facilitate comparison, we are expressing this burden as a percent of taxable payroll, along with Medicare Part A. Currently, spending on Social Security and total Medicare combined equals 14.2 percent of payroll. According to the SSA’s intermediate forecast, by mid-century spending on Social Security and total Medicare will increase to 28.2 percent of payroll more than one-fourth of workers’ incomes.

References:

Lee, R., Johnson, R., & Joyce, P. (2008). Public budget system (8th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett

Curry, G. E. (2013, Jan). Social security, medicare should be off the table. Chicago Defender. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1281633599?accountid=32521

2) Steven Wrote:

In 2009, President Obama gave back $250 dollars to people on social security and disabilities due to the economic crash in the housing market and retirement funds. This is a positive contribution, but what happens if we don’t raise the amount taken into the government fund supporting these benefits. Will we lose our social security in the future? Some projections is that over the next 20 years there might not be any social security retirement benefits. It would be a positive move to increase social security payments.

In 2012, approximately 10 million people paid more taxes,  and due to the higher tax table the government was able to give an increase in social security benefits of 3.6 percent. (Las Cruces Sun 2011) This is a positive thing for the ones that live on a social security income. There are many Americans in their 70’s that have a hard time living on their social security and with a payroll tax increase on social security it would have many benefits on Americans. The main concern is for the government to always have the social security benefit for several years to come. We can argue about percents and the increase in social security benefits, but when a person pays into this program for 30 years they expect a return. The government needs to do what it can to prevent the depletion of social security or by 2050 we might not have the program anymore.