Timetrvlr
Member
- Location
- central interior B.C., Canada
If Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling and Social Security payments stop?
Can you survive if Social Security payments stop?
- Thread starter Timetrvlr
- Start date
Katelivewire
Member
- Location
- Baltimore MD
Yes, but not in this locatio.
I would like to think it would not stop for those already drawing our benefits. I do realize that things can go sideways so I have always been frugal and proactive about watching my money. So yes, it would not be fun but I could get by. If necessary I could sell the home. I have no debt just the normal utilites, food and animal care. The extras I have given up long ago just knowing we never know what will happen in the future and it is always better to be prepared.
Katelivewire
Member
- Location
- Baltimore MD
Same here my home is paid off and just utilities and animal care I try to hang on to home as long as you can
Yes, this is my forever home unless my health get so bad I need to go into care. I have no intention to sale. It will be left to my son and he can decide if they want to live here or sale. I hope they will keep it as it is large, comfortable for a family and in a prime school district.
Katelivewire
Member
- Location
- Baltimore MD
That’s nice, we think alike I have put my son down for house also but the area has gotten Obadiah I do not want him to be hassled with the corruptio.
Lethe200
Senior Member
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
(Deleted)
OneEyedDiva
SF VIP
- Location
- New Jersey
Yes because I get a pension and have a retirement portfolio I've barely touched. Plus the co-op expenses on the unit I own and live in are very low; the mortgage was paid off in 2012. Also, my son lives with me now and of course he contributes.
Last edited:
Harry Le Hermit
Member
I'll chime in with this. In 1996 Congress passed a law that states SSA and Medicare payments would continue in the event of a debt limit being breached. If you understand how the trust fund operated, you would realized that we are currently drawing down on the trust funds, as money leaving the fund is higher than money coming in. In essence... the trust fund is now moving downward.
As all trust funds are part of the debt limit, it is important for these funds to continue paying. To stop paying from these funds, while still collecting money, would cause these funds to balloon, expanding the debt, putting extreme pressure on all other obligations, especially the nearly 3 trillion in T-bills, that must be rolled over within the year. Which would send the interest rates into some extreme rates.
The problem being with the Treasury having a system that does not differentiate SSA/Medicare payments from any other obligations.
If the debt limit is breached, and the Treasury does not send out SSA payments, the Treasury will have violated that law. Not that anything the government does... is ever prosecuted.
As all trust funds are part of the debt limit, it is important for these funds to continue paying. To stop paying from these funds, while still collecting money, would cause these funds to balloon, expanding the debt, putting extreme pressure on all other obligations, especially the nearly 3 trillion in T-bills, that must be rolled over within the year. Which would send the interest rates into some extreme rates.
The problem being with the Treasury having a system that does not differentiate SSA/Medicare payments from any other obligations.
If the debt limit is breached, and the Treasury does not send out SSA payments, the Treasury will have violated that law. Not that anything the government does... is ever prosecuted.
The SS Trust fund is not dependent on the General Revenue fund, not raising the debt ceiling will not affect disbursements.
Alligatorob
SF VIP
Yes, but not happily... I don't see it happening, too many voters effected.
sch404
Member
- Location
- Oak Park, Calif.
I have never regarded Social Security as anything more than a Ponzi scheme. My SSA benefits are being paid mainly from new workers coming in to the system and new debt taken on by the U.S. Treasury. My own contributions to SSA plus my employer's contribution to my SSA have already been repaid to me several times over. If SSA keeps paying me benefits, great, but if does not, I am not going to lose any sleep over it.
Alligatorob
SF VIP
Yep, and if the government was just honest about that we'd all feel a bit better about it. And perhaps be able to make better decisions. Nothing really wrong with younger works paying for retiree's pensions. The problem comes in selling the fallacy of some kind of savings or trust fund with the Social Security taxes...
Alligatorob
SF VIP
I'm honored, or should I say honoured, to remind you, @Alligatorob of Monty Python. I remember that skit!
Mine told me something similar.
Timewise 60+
Senior Member
Yes, but our government started "taking" social security out of my paychecks when I was 16! That was my money the were keeping for my old age. Our government stole that money at some point and now they think they have a right to stop paying it! That is the wrong solution...e.g.
Start reducing our government spending including the size of our government and continue to pay back SSI to those of us who paid into it. If someone did not pay into it, they get none! This is not meant to be a welfare program. Calculate how much each of us paid plus say 3% growth per year. That total sets the limit to how much I should get. I have already calculated that and If I lived to 150 I would not draw my full amount I paid! based on my current draw...
Start reducing our government spending including the size of our government and continue to pay back SSI to those of us who paid into it. If someone did not pay into it, they get none! This is not meant to be a welfare program. Calculate how much each of us paid plus say 3% growth per year. That total sets the limit to how much I should get. I have already calculated that and If I lived to 150 I would not draw my full amount I paid! based on my current draw...
sch404
Member
- Location
- Oak Park, Calif.
I started collecting Social Security 14 years ago when I retired at age 67. The total amount I paid into Social Security was $30,681. My employers paid a Social Security contribution for me of $33,537 for a total paid in amount of $64,218. So far I have received total Social Security benefits of $378,891. This is almost six times what I and my employers paid in. And I am still alive. Still collecting money from SS which was never mine to begin with. Now tell me again how Social Security is not both the worlds biggest Ponzi scheme but also the world's biggest welfare program!
Alligatorob
SF VIP
It's because the government is us, and the government, us again, does the prosecuting. Same reason its hard to sue the government.
However if individuals withing government break laws that's different, they can and should be prosecuted and/or sued.
Katelivewire
Member
- Location
- Baltimore MD
Sad as it is true
Katelivewire
Member
- Location
- Baltimore MD
I am still waiting for my survival benefits even with proof and still waiting, only on my social security and a disability help also, I would loose the disability but the survival benefit would be better
RadishRose
SF VIP
- Location
- Connecticut, USA
Hilarious!
Murrmurr
SF VIP
- Location
- Sacramento, California
When the Social Security Act was proposed back in the mid-1930s (as part of The New Deal), it wasn't at all popular with the supreme court and about 50% of the public. I remember my grampa still moaning about it when I was just a grasshopper.
I began paying into SS at the age of 15 I retired at 67 & 1/2. I will be 83 this coming July. I also receive a retirement check from the South Carolina Police Officers Retirement System this check is about $100.00 per month less than my SS check. My wife is also retired and receives a monthly check which is almost as much as my two checks combined. So, I suppose I would have to answer yes, we would survive however there would have to be some serious reductions in our lifestyle!