Will America Follow In the Footsteps of the French by Raising the Retirement Age? (281 hits)
TOP STORY - "U.S. deficit panel targets Social Security, taxes," by Reuters' Donna Smith and Jeff Mason: "Leaders of a presidential commission proposed raising taxes and the retirement age among bold ideas Wednesday for slashing the U.S. budget deficit ... [C]ommission co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson floated proposals that they said would bring $4 trillion in deficit reduction through 2020.
... Fourteen of the 18 members of the panel created by President Barack Obama must approve a final report before it can go to Congress for a vote ... The two heads of the commission ... proposed raising the gasoline tax gradually by 15 cents beginning in 2013; limiting the mortgage interest tax deduction and charitable deductions; cutting defense spending; and reducing corporate and individual tax rates. Capital gains and dividends would be taxed as ordinary income ...
'It's all there. We have harpooned every whale in the ocean and some of the minnows,' said Simpson ... at a press briefing."
I am almost certain retirement age will be raised. We have been borrowing money for so long and now the bill is due. I would stongly advise everyone to get their financial house in order now. Even though I retired from the Army, I am not taking the monthly check for granted. I still work and save.
Thursday, November 11th 2010 at 10:41AM
Dorothy Johnson
Goodness! Life is a vapor-- and if we work to retire at such a late age as possibly 69! I think knowing that SSI will not be much I cannot bear to work so long!! This is a disgrace... I don't think it makes any sense at all.
Thursday, November 11th 2010 at 3:25PM
MIISRAEL Bride
Misreal, Social Security is not /was not intended to fund one's entire retirement life. It is to used as a supplement.
Thursday, November 11th 2010 at 8:25PM
Dorothy Johnson
Thanks for the comments to this blog guys, but I'm not going out without a fight. I tolda my husband that I'd be contacting my Senators asap. Did you hear that the Bush Eral tax cuts are going to remain? Let the wealthy get us out of the deficit. Let them use those millions and billions they get back from their tax cuts to pay the deficit off.
Thursday, November 11th 2010 at 9:28PM
Jen Fad
Along with the fighting, get your financial house in order. Change is coming. We(this country) has been borrowing money from China and others for the last 8 years and it's time to pay back. Services & benefits will be cut( no ifs ands or buts). I did hear about the tax cuts being extended but I am not sure if it's a definite or not.
@ Sister Dorothy What do you mean by [get your financial house in order]? We could all use some advice here if you could be so kind to share specifics. Thanks.
Friday, November 12th 2010 at 9:19AM
Jen Fad
Jen, what I meant is several emtitlement programs, social services, etc will be reduced. People are going to have to depend on themselves. some some this will be a shock because they are used to going to agencies to get assistance with their needs. I just want people to be ready and prepared. I live in Boston. At one point people that had Mass health could get dental crowns and other perks. Ioverheard a brother say he didn't vote for Gov Patrick this time around because he cut funding for dental care. He kept rantling about this. I finally asked : who is responsible for you dental care? The thought for awhile and finally came to the conclusion....he is. Mass Health still has dental coverage but will not do high end dental work. People are refered to the Dental School which charges a reduced fee. The point is the brother was so used to getting it "Free". Please look under the group Money, Money I started that group and provided some self help tools in helping one get their financial house in order. I rec'd a lot of responses of people receiving information...but no responses(sharing of information). I ended up leaving the group for a brief moment. If we are to move forward as a group(a people) we are going to have to pull each other up.
Friday, November 12th 2010 at 10:32AM
Dorothy Johnson
Sister Dorothy, I agree with what you have stated. Money has always been hard to come by for me, but I tend to spend it easily. Now that I have a family, I've learned over the years that saving is a good thing. Hopefullywe will all get it together.
Sunday, November 14th 2010 at 2:13AM
Jen Fad
Jen, we don't really have a choice. As you have maybe already noticed, city/state/ non profits , contributions from businesses have been reduced. Where are we to go and do it we don't start like today, right now saving and changing our spending habits. We need to do this as an individual & family. I,too at one point was a spender. I remember being a young LT in the Army and getting money I had not seen before. I wanted, saw and I bought. It took years of doing this to learn. When I started a family that's wen I did change my habits. My son, who is 24 is a saver, not into the new sneaker/clothes scene. I mean he does buy but he tend to save toward what he wants/needs. My sister at one point asked me to loan her $500.00 . I told her to ask him. she was shocked "Ask Jonathan? I said yes ask him. He even shocked her more by asking when was she going to pay him back and what she needed with the money. I had been on her for awhile to start up a family emergency fund. It seemed like everytime someone needed $'s, they came to me. She was not really for it in the begining but, we do have one set up. Everyone contributes what they can afford. In the same note everyone can take funds from it. Naturally we had had to draw up some guidelines. But it has worked wonders for my family. We fund itpartly in monthly donations by every family member and through a service called igive.com Through www.igive.com we either earn money by using it as a search engine for internet searches or buy things online from the 700 plus stores . I have started to post ideas on how to earn/save. So far I have not received many hits. I guess the topic is not as interesting as others.
Sunday, November 14th 2010 at 12:51PM
Dorothy Johnson
