Social Security is not broke

Social Security is not broke. i'll say it again Social Security is not broke. It has never been broke and will be fully funded for another 25 years at which point it faces a gap. If you have a gap at the end of the month but know more revenue will be coming in the next month you don't view yourself as broke unless there is no revenue stream at all. In fact most of us perceiving a gap will try to close it by bringing in more revenue.

Pundits on the other side don't want you to ever consider closing the Social Security gap by requiring an elevation in the amount of income that is subject to Social Security deductions. Today you only have to deduct for any income you make under $108,000 per year. This means all those people making over $108,000 per year don't have to make deductions on the excess.

So while the little guy making $20,000 a year sees 7.5% of his income deducted, the guy making $350,000 per year only sees 2.3% of his income deducted if their employers are paying the other half. Anyone out there think this is “fair”? It is very easy to fix the gap by raising the income level. After the past two stock market blowouts i think most people realize they have one income stream they can always count on and that is Social Security. Lets fix it not destroy it.

On another note i was reading a piece the other day that is a review of a book written by Dave Grossman a Special Forces Colonel at West Point. His book called “On Killing” provides an abundance of evidence to show that most men and women are reluctant to kill a fellow human being. According to his research human beings are not natural warriors and that it is war itself that brings out aggressiveness. He says that even during actual battles many soldiers will not shoot at their enemies and will fire into the air.

Since that massacre last week by one of our own in Afghanistan i have been wondering why we aren't out of there yet, especially since polling shows a majority of Americans want us to leave. We spend 2 billion a week, i'll say that again, 2 billion a week in Afghanistan. Ralph Lopez says spending 2 billion a week to buy hatred is too much. i tend to agree with him.

Imagine what 2 billion a week here at home could do. It could fix those deteriorating roads and bridges, make mass transit more affordable, bring back some of those laid off teachers, firemen and policemen. i'm sure we could think of lots to do with 2 billion a week.

And on a final note. The rise in gasoline prices has nothing to do with President Obama. Demand is down and in fact we have been exporting some of our product overseas. When demand is down Wall Street bets on higher gas prices in the future which is what is causing the price to rise at the pump. Speculators account for 64% of all contracts where as in the past they only accounted for about 30%.

“Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission—the federal agency that regulates trading in oil futures, among other commodities—warns that too few financial players control too much of the oil market. This allows them to push oil prices higher and higher—not only on the basis of their expectations about the future but also expectations about how high other speculators will drive the price.

In other words a relatively few players with very deep pockets are placing huge bets on oil and you are paying.” Robert Reich

Wall Street has gone to court to stop aspects of the Dodd Frank law that would protect consumers against these type of practices, if you want your gas price to continue to rise please don't support repeal of this important legislation.

See ya next week