We need to spend less. It’s not that complicated. Our spending is out of control. The only required expenditure is the military.
Spending less is very achievable but your initial post and claims were about cutting social security specifically. And if you’re saying we should only spend on military, that means cutting approximately 74% of federal spending and function. This is a deeply unpopular position that is not supported by either major political party, which makes it extremely unlikely to happen.
Trump has said he will eliminate the department of education. That’s a first step in making the government smaller.
Nevertheless, he did no such thing when he had the opportunity in his first term. Further, he has stated he would protect some of the largest expenditures in the budget.
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 3 months ago
It’s a good place to start. It keeps the poor, poor and causes our budgets to continue to grow.
The deficit spending was declining until Covid. Are you suggesting we shouldn’t have funded anything for Covid ? That’s the majority of the expense
tswiftchair@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Research suggests otherwise:
“Social Security benefits play a vital role in reducing poverty in every state, and they lift more people above the poverty line than any other program in the United States. Without Social Security, 22.7 million more adults and children would be below the poverty line, according to our analysis using the March 2023 Current Population Survey. Although most of those whom Social Security keeps out of poverty are aged 65 or older, 6.2 million are under age 65, including 900,000 children.”
Source
Data from the Social Security Administration itself also doesn’t seem to support this (PDF).
This is incorrect. National deficit and debt increased every year under the Trump administration. Further, Trump’s own 2020 budget, which was released before Covid in March 2019, projected a $4.8 trillion deficit for 2020-2024 under his own policies (PDF).
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 3 months ago
nber.org/…/social-security-increases-wealth-inequ…
Not studies say it does.
tswiftchair@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Your second source merely discusses a New York Times article that talks about how rich people benefit more from social security because they have longer lifespans. It does not suggest that getting rid of the program would help poor people. In fact, it even suggests raising the maximum earnings at which social security taxes are paid or reducing benefits for higher paid workers, which is effectively investing more in the program.
Your first source is much more in-depth but also doesn’t suggest that getting rid of the program would help poor people overall because it is specifically looking at inheritances. It does suggest that social security can worsen intragenerational wealth inequality because it can’t be passed on as inheritance and social security represents the majority of the wealth of poor retirees. Meanwhile, social security represents a small portion of the wealth of wealthy retirees so they are able to pass on more inheritance. Thus, intragenerational wealth inequality is worsened. But there is no indication that inheritances of the poor would be sufficient to replace social security. The paper also notes that other, more important factors contribute to intragenerational wealth inequality and states that wealth inequality would only be reduced to a minor degree without social security.
These sources actually suggest that wealthy people benefit more than poor people and, therefore, the program should be strengthened for the poor. Exactly the opposite of getting rid of it.