Will Congress have the votes to repeal the Social Security Act?

They won’t have a chance to. Social Security will bankrupt us long before Congress musters the balls to do anything as rational as to get rid of it.

One can only hope that the people would rise up and lead the politicians that support such a move to the guillotine when they push for that.

Yes, and I expect a full refund of MY money.

GA @CyanoticWasp

No, I don’t think so. Especially with the Dems retaining control of the Senate.

Not anytime soon. You may have some pyschos on the right try and introduce legislation though.

Social Security is not going bankrupt, not even close. That’s a dishonest mantra (AKA lie), I’ve been hearing for over 30 years from right-wing acquaintances.

Under current law, Social Security is projected to run out of money in 2042.

Thirty-two years is plenty of times to figure out a fix.

CBO’s 2010 Long-Term Projections for Social Security
http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11943

Social Security Policy Options
http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11580

Just because something isn’t projected to go bankrupt until 2024 doesn’t mean I think it’s a good idea.

Not a chance. Congress will wait until the last moment and then raise the retirement age. They might even increase the social security tax.

Better to fix Social Security soon rather than end it. The best solution I’ve seen is this:

• Restore the maximum taxable wage base to the levels Congress originally intended (84% back to 90%)

• Convert the Federal Estate Tax into a dedicated source of funding for Social Security

• Allow the government to diversify its portfolio into stocks as well as trust funds. Further, this would adequately fund the system so the system could bear the bulk of the risks associated with private investment, not the retiree

• Protect against a draw-down of reserves. This includes a possible contingent tax should the reserves deplete to a certain level that is removed when appropriate levels are restored.

@jaytkay it’s not “going bankrupt”, it always has been bankrupt. Every Ponzi scheme is, nearly from its inception. The question is whether it’s going to take the rest of the government with it when it collapses… which it will.

Social Security has never been bankrupt, in fact it is one of the most efficiently run programs in our country. Every 20–30 years they restructure it when they see that it will become unsolvent in the distant future (in this case in about 20 years). This has happened multiple times in the past, and it always comes out working just fine. Part of why we are the best country in the world is that we look out for those who are down on their luck and our elderly. If we lose social security… I honestly fear for the direction the country will be headed.

Anyone who thinks that Social Security isn’t bankrupt doesn’t understand the term.

When you rely upon current ‘investors’ to continue their remittances so that you can pay out past ‘investors’ so that they don’t come at you with pitchforks and torches, that is a Ponzi scheme. Of course, when the government requires that this be done, then it’s just ‘business as usual’.

Social Security has no “assets” of its own to pay out “benefits”. The terms don’t even make sense in Social Security World.

@CyanoticWasp Ponzi scheme implies that one person at the top is making a ton of money, and that is not the case with social security. And actually NO you and I are not currently paying for people’s social security. They already paid into it, and are simply taking back what they paid in. WE are paying for our own social security down the line.

Social security owns the largest single chunk of the US national debt outside of a few foreign countries, and has literally TRILLIONS of dollars in surplus funds that it is sitting on to give to people in the future.

Thats why they had to make laws that politicians can’t touch Social Security money, because they were trying to “take loans” from it.

Read up on your “facts”

@CyanoticWasp You are repeating almost word for word what I heard from SS-haters in 1978.
The people I heard it from are now elderly. And collecting their Social Security checks every month.

Why is everybody freaked out over what amounts to $28 a month?

?? Where does the $28 number come from?